TheBlaze.com - Storieshttp://www.theblaze.com Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:46:58 +0000en-ushourly1Stanford Prof. of Neurosurgery Shares How He Went From an Impoverished Child to Where He Is Todayhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/03/stanford-prof-of-neurosurgery-shares-how-he-went-from-an-impoverished-child-to-where-he-is-today/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=stanford-prof-of-neurosurgery-shares-how-he-went-from-an-impoverished-child-to-where-he-is-todayhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/03/stanford-prof-of-neurosurgery-shares-how-he-went-from-an-impoverished-child-to-where-he-is-today/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=stanford-prof-of-neurosurgery-shares-how-he-went-from-an-impoverished-child-to-where-he-is-today#commentsTue, 03 Mar 2015 15:02:25 +0000Erica Ritz“This is my first experience with neuroplasticity, or changing your brain.”
]]>James Doty, a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and the founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, said he had few opportunities as a child.

“My father was an alcoholic, my mother was an invalid,” Doty said on The Glenn Beck Program in an episode that aired Monday. “She had had a stroke and was partially paralyzed. We were on public assistance. I had no mentors. Neither of my parents had gone to college, and it was difficult.”

“By the time [I was 13] I had become angry, was filled with despair and hopelessness,” Doty continued. “When you have nothing to lose, it doesn’t matter what happens to you, you don’t care anymore.”

Doty said he began using drugs because he had “no future and nothing else to do” until he walked into a magic shop at age 13.

James Doty, a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University, appears on The Glenn Beck Program. (Image credit: TheBlaze TV)

“The owner wasn’t there but his mother was there. She knew nothing about magic. And I tell people, prior to this I felt like a leaf being blown by an ill wind,” Doty said. “I had no stability.”

The woman told Doty she would be there for six weeks, and if he was willing to come in every day for two hours, she would teach him something.

“She taught me a technique of, if you will, mind training or meditation intertwined with a visualization technique intertwined with the power of positive thinking and self-hypnosis,” Doty said. “This is my first experience with neuroplasticity, or changing your brain.”

“I went from having a worldview of limited to no possibilities to unlimited possibilities, and that fundamental interaction with this woman changed my life. It opened the world to me and allowed me to go to college, or believe I could go to college, go to medical school.”

Doty said he has come to understand that when you “put these ideas and this intention in the right place,” anything is possible, but it may not always occur in a “straight line.” He has come to believe that humans are fundamentally wired for kindness and compassion, and it is crucial to see other people for what they are — people.

“When you look at somebody as a human being who has a life, who has hopes, who has fears, who has dreams, and you see them as that, it changes everything,” he said.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>3The Senate just held a vote that could signal the GOP is about to lose the immigration fighthttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/03/02/the-senate-just-held-a-vote-that-could-signal-the-gop-is-about-to-lose-the-immigration-fight/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=the-senate-just-held-a-vote-that-could-signal-the-gop-is-about-to-lose-the-immigration-fighthttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/03/02/the-senate-just-held-a-vote-that-could-signal-the-gop-is-about-to-lose-the-immigration-fight/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=the-senate-just-held-a-vote-that-could-signal-the-gop-is-about-to-lose-the-immigration-fight#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 22:56:48 +0000Pete KasperowiczSenate Democrats on Monday night blocked a Republican request to negotiate a Department of Homeland Security spending bill with the House, a move that could signal the end of GOP efforts to use that bill to defund President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration.

Republicans in the House and Senate have been pushing for a return to “regular order,” in which the two chambers meet in a conference committee to work out differences between legislation. In this case, the differences are huge — the House bill defunds Obama’s immigration plans, and the Senate bill doesn’t.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sought to negotiate with the House on a DHS funding bill, but was blocked by Senate Democrats. Image: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A conference committee may have allowed leaders in both parties to get together and negotiate something, potentially even language that somehow chips away or moderates Obama’s immigration program.

But Senate Democrats have said routinely that they wouldn’t go to a conference, and they voted that way Monday evening. The Senate voted 47-43 in favor of a negotiation, but because 60 votes were needed, and at least six Democrats to get to 60, the vote failed.

Immediately afterwards, the Senate held another vote to resend the clean Senate DHS bill back to the House, and that passed with the help of several Republican votes.

Those votes could start a chain of events that many think will result in passing the Democrats’ preferred DHS bill by the end of the week.

With the Senate’s rejection of a negotiation, the two chambers are officially in disagreement with each other. According to the House rulebook, that state will allow House Democrats to request that the House hold a vote on the Senate bill, the one that funds Obama’s immigration plan.

Those rules say that request is “privileged,” and that it would have to come up for a vote. If just 30 or so Republicans favor passage of the “clean” DHS bill, it would pass the House and be sent to the White House for Obama’s signature into law.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) told TheBlaze on Monday that he was pressing Republicans to alter the rule, so that a Democrat would not be allowed to call up the Senate bill in the House. But it was unclear whether GOP leaders would agree to this change.

]]>16‘FTR’ Producer’s Notebook: How changing the way you use insurance could save the medical industryhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/03/02/ftr-producers-notebook-how-changing-the-way-you-use-insurance-could-save-the-medical-industry/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-producers-notebook-how-changing-the-way-you-use-insurance-could-save-the-medical-industryhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/03/02/ftr-producers-notebook-how-changing-the-way-you-use-insurance-could-save-the-medical-industry/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-producers-notebook-how-changing-the-way-you-use-insurance-could-save-the-medical-industry#commentsMon, 02 Mar 2015 13:29:54 +0000Tom OrrThis week, For the Record examines health care and health insurance and finds that they may not be as closely related as you’ve been led to believe.

While the Affordable Care Act has forced millions of Americans to buy health insurance that covers basic treatments like birth control, a growing number of physicians and nurse practitioners are going an entirely different direction: They’re cutting insurance out of their practices entirely.

In this week’s “Producer’s Notebook” podcast, For the Record executive producer Joe Weasel talks to Dr. James Pinckney, who started one of those practices. Diamond Physicians in Dallas offers clients unlimited visits and 24/7 access to care for a fixed monthly membership fee. Everything is paid in cash, which saves the practice massive amounts of time and money.

]]>2Is America Becoming Exactly What President Eisenhower Warned Against?http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/26/is-america-becoming-exactly-what-president-eisenhower-warned-against/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=is-america-becoming-exactly-what-president-eisenhower-warned-againsthttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/26/is-america-becoming-exactly-what-president-eisenhower-warned-against/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=is-america-becoming-exactly-what-president-eisenhower-warned-against#commentsFri, 27 Feb 2015 00:00:24 +0000Erica Ritz“This is an unprecedented assault on individual liberty.”
]]>President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the nation about the risks of the “acquisition of unwarranted influence” by the “military industrial complex,” and Glenn Beck said Thursday that America is becoming exactly what Eisenhower warned against.

“Military gear and military interrogation tactics are leaving the battlefield, hear me America, and are now being unleashed on American citizens,” Beck said on his television program. “How long before suspects are going to get waterboarded? Gosh this sounds crazy! It is hard to fathom that a facility such as Homan Square even exists. But what is harder to fathom is that we as a society are not outraged by any of it.”

The Guardian this week revealed the location of a secret interrogation facility in Chicago’s Homan Square where suspects are illegally “disappeared.” They are reportedly kept off official databases and denied access to legal representation for 12 to 24 hours while undergoing beatings and other interrogation techniques. One suspect was only 15 years old, and another was reportedly pronounced dead after being found unresponsive in an interrogation room.

“The militarization of the American police continues to march on, and this one is a huge milestone,” Beck said. “This is an unprecedented assault on individual liberty. All Americans can and must stand up. But it seems like all we can do is say, ‘Eh.’”

Glenn Beck speaks about President Dwight D. Eisenhower on his television program Feb. 26, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

“I warn you with everything in me: we are going to become the darkest of dark nations if we don’t wake up soon and we don’t stand together, left and right,” Beck continued. “This is something that both sides should be able to agree on.”

Beck said when a nation combines a militarized police with a surveillance state it is “over.”

“But this isn’t something that has just snuck up on us. This has been a steady progression long before the Boston bombings, long before the Department of Homeland Security, long before 9/11,” Beck said. “The fears of a potential shift towards a militarized police state go all the way back to 1961 and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

Beck said Eisenhower saw the military build-up in World War II, and he saw what the Germans had done to their own people. The president warned the nation in the strongest of terms that it “must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”

“We are now witnessing his worst fears playing out before our very eyes,” Beck said. “How many freedoms are you willing to trade in the name of security? Do you remember what life was like in America before Osama bin Laden? What has happened to us?”

“It is our duty as citizens to speak out against the injustice now while someone can still hear us — whether you’re on the Internet or on television or in your own home,” Beck concluded. “They are regulating all of it. Speak before you’re just a lonely voice in an empty warehouse.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>92‘FTR Field Report’: Judicial Watch president talks ‘smoking gun’ emails on Benghazihttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/26/ftr-field-report-judicial-watch-president-talks-smoking-gun-emails-on-benghazi/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-field-report-judicial-watch-president-talks-smoking-gun-emails-on-benghazihttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/26/ftr-field-report-judicial-watch-president-talks-smoking-gun-emails-on-benghazi/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-field-report-judicial-watch-president-talks-smoking-gun-emails-on-benghazi#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 21:30:28 +0000Tom OrrConservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch has uncovered new documents that show that members of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s staff knew immediately that the 2012 attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi was a terror attack and not a result of a protest over a YouTube video.

Judicial Watch obtained emails sent by Clinton’s senior staff through a Freedom of Information Act request.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2013.Credit: AFP/Getty Images

At 4:07 p.m. ET on the day of the attack, Clinton’s special assistant sent an email saying, “Tripoli reports approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well.”

At 4:38 p.m., another email forwarded to Clinton’s staff cited a phone call from someone in Benghazi saying that “15 armed individuals were attacking the compound and trying to gain entrance.”

At 6:06 p.m., an email said that Ansar al-Sharia, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda, had claimed credit for the attack.

At 11:57 p.m., another email said that Diplomatic Security was reporting that the Benghazi facility was under mortar fire.

However, even though her staff had been notified about the details of the attack and Ansar al-Sharia’s claim of responsibility, Clinton issued a statement saying the incident may have been “a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet.”

For the Record senior investigative correspondent Sara Carter sat down with Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton to discuss the emails and what they could mean in a new podcast. Listen to the podcast on the For the Record page on Soundcloud or below.

]]>4‘You Morons! You Useful Idiots!’: The Report That Made Glenn Beck Lose It on Radiohttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/26/you-morons-you-useful-idiots-the-report-that-made-glenn-beck-lose-it-on-radio/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=you-morons-you-useful-idiots-the-report-that-made-glenn-beck-lose-it-on-radiohttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/26/you-morons-you-useful-idiots-the-report-that-made-glenn-beck-lose-it-on-radio/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=you-morons-you-useful-idiots-the-report-that-made-glenn-beck-lose-it-on-radio#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 19:03:46 +0000Erica Ritz“You morons … do you realize what you’ve just done?”
]]>Glenn Beck lost it on his radio program Thursday after his co-host Stu Burguiere read him a Politico report saying FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler “made some last-minute revisions to his net neutrality plan” after Google, Free Press and New America’s Open Technology Institute “asked the commission to revise language they said could unintentionally allow Internet service providers to charge websites for sending content to consumers.”

“So they know the specific language of the bill,” Beck said. “And as American citizens, the ones who will be affected by this, we don’t know that language. We’re not allowed to see it! We can’t get the commissioner that we pay to go and testify on the contents of what’s in that proposal.”

“Sound like the way the government is supposed to run?” Beck demanded. “Does that sound like net neutrality? Does that sound like these big, evil corporations don’t have anything to do with anything? I mean, it’s being written by the big evil corporations and special interest groups! Your whole point is, we don’t want special interest groups and we don’t want big, evil corporations to have special access! They just wrote it, you nincompoop!”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 26, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck said America’s “entire educational system” has failed and is “churning out morons.”

“It’s just like Obamacare — you won’t root it out now,” Beck said of the proposal, which passed in a straight party-line vote after Beck’s radio program ended. “It started the ball rolling. So they’ll say, ‘Well, we need something. We need some sort of regulation.’ And you morons, you morons on the left, do you realize what you’ve just done? The next president that gets in — you put me into the Oval Office, you want me running your Internet?”

“The truthful answer to that is yes, because I’ll disband all the regulation on it,” Beck continued. “But the monster that you think I am, you want me running it? … I’ll make your life a living, stinking hell. That’s the monster you think I am. And I have news for you, that monster is out there on the right. And there’s a monster out there right now on the left that will do the same damn thing.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>347Glenn Beck Says if This Story Disappears, You Will Know the Government Is Being Run by the ‘Worst Kinds of People’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/25/glenn-beck-says-if-this-story-disappears-you-will-know-the-government-is-being-run-by-the-worst-kinds-of-people/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=glenn-beck-says-if-this-story-disappears-you-will-know-the-government-is-being-run-by-the-worst-kinds-of-peoplehttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/25/glenn-beck-says-if-this-story-disappears-you-will-know-the-government-is-being-run-by-the-worst-kinds-of-people/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=glenn-beck-says-if-this-story-disappears-you-will-know-the-government-is-being-run-by-the-worst-kinds-of-people#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 23:50:02 +0000Erica Ritz“Dire, dire trouble”
]]>Glenn Beck said Wednesday that if the story of the State Department’s director of counterterrorism being arrested for allegedly soliciting a juvenile “disappears,” you will know the U.S. government is being run by the “worst kinds of people.”

“[A kakistocracy] is when a government fills its leadership and other high-level positions with the worst people society has to offer: the deviants, the liars and the criminals,” Beck said on his television program. “That’s exactly what the Germans did, and really bad governments do this because they know if you put somebody like that into power … they’ll do anything. They’ll lie, they’ll steal, they’ll cheat, they’ll kill.”

“They are the kind of people that are willing to show you an envelope of your dirtiest, most shameful moments and then use it to keep you a slave,” Beck added. “If [Daniel Rosen's story] disappears, you know that we are living in a government that is run just like the German government was run in the 1930s, one with the worst kinds of people.”

Beck said the nation is in “dire, dire trouble” if the repeated claims that senior State Department officials are soliciting sex with minors are ignored.

Glenn Beck speaks on his television program Feb. 25, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

“Think about this — he’s in counter-terrorism intelligence so he knows about the NSA. He knows about the spying capabilities that we have. He’s seen all of it. He uses all of it!” Beck said. “He doesn’t even think the NSA will catch him. He doesn’t think that anybody even cares at the State Department. Are we insane? You don’t think Russia is looking into people like this?”

Beck asked how vulnerable the nation could become if “somebody comes to Rosen with pictures, with the email log of his perverted Weiner-like sex chats with teenage girls.”

“Here’s the worst part: there is an epidemic of really sick individuals at the State Department right now. Rosen is just the tip of the iceberg. Nobody is going to be talking about this,” Beck added.

Beck encouraged his audience to watch For the Record: Honor Fight, which has been updated and is re-airing Wednesday, and investigates the “rampant corruption and abuse of power” inside the State Department.

“There is no way for our country to survive if we put up with this kind of evil in our people’s name,” Beck concluded.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>182Glenn Beck Says This Is ‘One of the Worst Interviews by any CEO’ He Has Ever Heardhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/25/glenn-beck-says-this-is-one-of-the-worst-interviews-by-any-ceo-he-has-ever-heard/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=glenn-beck-says-this-is-one-of-the-worst-interviews-by-any-ceo-he-has-ever-heardhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/25/glenn-beck-says-this-is-one-of-the-worst-interviews-by-any-ceo-he-has-ever-heard/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=glenn-beck-says-this-is-one-of-the-worst-interviews-by-any-ceo-he-has-ever-heard#commentsWed, 25 Feb 2015 19:13:55 +0000Erica Ritz“Um — ah, I confess it’s not my area…”
]]>Glenn Beck on Wednesday said Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp’s interview on CNBC on net neutrality was “one of the worst interviews by any CEO” he has ever heard.

Karp went on the network to argue in favor of net neutrality, saying America needs to “move further in breaking down the near monopoly situation” that exists today. When he was challenged on the issue, however, he responded: “Um — ah, I confess it’s not my area…”

“This is evidence that these people are so well insulated with only people that think like them,” Beck added. “He’s at a cocktail party. [He says], ‘I know the monopolies are really the problem.’ Nobody in the room said, ‘Well, OK, if you want to break up the monopolies, the first thing you do is deregulate the cable industry … so other people can start their own cable company.’”

“Nobody has said that to them?” Beck pressed. “I contend this is why the president does not do interviews with people like me or people on Fox. Because he cannot argue. He has not been faced with anyone who has an opposing viewpoint. He can’t.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 25, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck said conservatives and libertarians are “constantly belittled, constantly challenged in the press” on their viewpoints.

“So you’re constantly going, ‘Wait a minute, let me think this one through. … Is that really what I believe? Do they have a point?’ If you’re not constantly challenged, you’re never held responsible for what your viewpoint is or if you’re surrounded by people who only think like you, duh, this is what you sound like.”

Beck interviewed Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on Wednesday, who said he believes many corporations have not considered the ramifications of having the government regulate the Internet.

“Reddit is another community [that is] posting about it all the time,” Stu Burguiere added, agreeing with Cuban. “They’re also known as basically the largest free purveyor of porn in the universe. What happens when, name the evil Republican you don’t like, is president? What do they do? Cuban brought this up last night too — decency standards. Who’s to say they don’t start applying that?”

“When you give them a foot in the door with regulation, you’re going to eventually get a president you don’t like who doesn’t want you doing the things that you like on the Internet,” Burguiere concluded. “Why give them that power?”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

“What it comes down to is, the net has worked,” Cuban said. “We’re not in an industry where the technology has become stagnant and there’s no more enhancements so we need regulation to try to make things happen. We’re not there. And so as long as the technology is allowed to advance, we’re OK.”

Cuban said the uncertainty and legal challenges of having the government regulate the Internet will be enormous, and predicted that it will slow down innovation. He also said there are many unexpected issues that will arise from such an enormous change.

“If net neutrality is taken to its logical extension … if there’s no priority for television and it’s just part of the open Internet and delivery, your traditional television, watching the evening news, it’s over,” Cuban said. “If there is no such thing as a prioritized bit, then all that digital television going through the same pipe, all those voters who like to get Fox News or MSNBC, they’re going to freak out because you’re going to have to go to their website to get it or you’re going to have to get a special box that identifies the channels and brings it to you.”

Cuban said television networks will likely begin buffering, which will force people to buy new equipment. But there are even more possibilities that aren’t being discussed.

“There’s going to be someone that comes along and says, ‘We need decency standards applied to all the content on the Internet because now that is coming through the same pipe and it’s open to everybody,’” Cuban remarked. “[Or], ‘We need educational requirements.’ Remember Bill Clinton said you have to have a certain amount of educational content?”

“This goes into the law of unexpected consequences, or unintended consequences, that you don’t know what’s going to happen when all these things change,” he said. “You would think companies like Twitter and Facebook have thought through the technological aspects of it. I don’t think they have.”

Cuban said the Internet isn’t perfect, but slowing down or reversing its progress by giving the government control is not the answer. One thing that companies are consistently working to improve is their online security, but until forms of wireless communication are more secure, Cuban suggested people try to “hack themselves.”

“What I did for myself and my kids … I just said, ‘OK, I’m going to pretend I’m them and try to get into their account,’” Cuban explained. “And what ends up happening … you go in there and say, ‘I forgot my password.’ And then it asks you for a security question.”

“If you’re a visible person like we are, chances are whatever your security question is, you thought about it years ago and you’ve talked about it since then,” Cuban continued. “My first address or my first pet’s name. If you Google that, you’re going to find it. And that’s how most people get hacked.”

Cuban said his daughter’s security question was related to her address, and his wife’s was “easy” to find as well.

“That’s one step, and part two to that is, you should use two-step authentication for everything, for all your email, without question,” Cuban concluded.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>212‘Absolutely Unbelievable’: Beck Describes His Experience With the ‘Closest Thing to a Self-Driving Car’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/24/absolutely-unbelievable-beck-describes-his-experience-with-the-closest-thing-to-a-self-driving-car/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=absolutely-unbelievable-beck-describes-his-experience-with-the-closest-thing-to-a-self-driving-carhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/24/absolutely-unbelievable-beck-describes-his-experience-with-the-closest-thing-to-a-self-driving-car/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=absolutely-unbelievable-beck-describes-his-experience-with-the-closest-thing-to-a-self-driving-car#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 22:15:18 +0000Erica Ritz“I did not touch the gas or the brake until I got home.”
]]>Glenn Beck was recently able to drive a vehicle with driver assist technology, which he described Tuesday as “the closest thing to a self-driving car” and what he believes will be “the next step” before cars become fully autonomous.

“It is absolutely unbelievable,” Beck said on his radio program. “You push what used to be cruise control, and you set the cruise control, and then you decide how many car lengths you want to be from the car in front of you. So I set it to like two car lengths, set it at church. I did not touch the gas or the brake until I got home.”

“It’s insane. You’re steering the car,” Beck continued. “But the car won’t let you go out of your own lane. You put on the blinker, and then you can switch lanes. If you don’t put on the blinker and you just kind of drift, first, the steering wheel vibrates. Then if you don’t correct, it automatically corrects for you and keeps you in your lane.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 24, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck said it “freaked [him] out” on the highway, and when they exited, he decided not to touch the brake, but hover over it in case he needed to override the vehicle. He was amazed that the car slowed down exactly like it was supposed to for the off-ramp, stopped at the light, and started back up when it was time to go.

Beck said he has a “love-hate relationship with technology” where he both thinks it is both “the greatest” and could be a “recipe for disaster.”

“Try this on for size,” he said. “I was talking to a guy who has this car and he said, ‘I was driving and a semi-truck almost hit me.’ He said, ‘It came swerving into my lane and the car took over and pushed me.’”

“And I said, ‘What happens if there’s a car in the other lane?’ He said, ‘There was another car in the lane. It sensed the other car in the other lane and kept me between the two cars.’ Is that insane?” Beck asked.

Beck’s co-host Stu Burguiere predicted that self-driving cars will soon be like airplanes, where it “feels weird” not to be in control, but “once you get past that instinct, these things will take over really fast.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>80You’ll probably never guess which music megastar tweeted a shoutout to Glenn Beckhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/24/youll-probably-never-guess-which-music-megastar-tweeted-a-shoutout-to-glenn-beck/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=youll-probably-never-guess-which-music-megastar-tweeted-a-shoutout-to-glenn-beckhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/24/youll-probably-never-guess-which-music-megastar-tweeted-a-shoutout-to-glenn-beck/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=youll-probably-never-guess-which-music-megastar-tweeted-a-shoutout-to-glenn-beck#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 18:12:56 +0000Erica RitzLady Gaga tweeted a shoutout to Glenn Beck on Monday after Beck praised her recent tribute to “The Sound of Music” at the Oscars.

“A very humbling review of my Oscar performance,” the music megastar tweeted, including a link to an article on glennbeck.com summarizing Beck’s comments. “I love this piece of music so much, thank you.”

A very humbling review of my Oscar performance http://t.co/n8PrXelFvy I love this piece of music so much, thank you.

Beck praised Lady Gaga as an “absolute artist” and a “genius” on his radio program Monday.

Lady Gaga performs at the Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision/AP)

“I’ve said this for a long time. This woman is an absolute artist. She is a genius,” Beck said. “At first everybody mocked her. Then she just became such a big pop star. But a lot of people, again, continued to mock her. This woman is the way artists should be.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>112Glenn Beck Says He Witnessed a ‘Full-Fledged Miracle’ Last Weekhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/23/glenn-beck-says-he-witnessed-a-full-fledged-miracle-last-week/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=glenn-beck-says-he-witnessed-a-full-fledged-miracle-last-weekhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/23/glenn-beck-says-he-witnessed-a-full-fledged-miracle-last-week/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=glenn-beck-says-he-witnessed-a-full-fledged-miracle-last-week#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 19:50:45 +0000Erica Ritz“There is no way to explain what has just happened.”
]]>Glenn Beck has said that whenever miracles occur, he intends to stand and recognize them. And last Friday, he said a miracle occurred.

“On Friday I went to the doctor and I witnessed, and so did my doctor and my wife, a full-fledged miracle,” Beck said on his radio program Monday. “In fact the doctor said to me, ‘There is no way to explain what has just happened.’ … He said, ‘I think we helped, but honestly I was lying to you. I was trying to tell you that, you know, things could get better.’”

Beck said that one year ago, he had five different autoimmune disorders. Last November he revealed the true extent of his health issues, and praised the Carrick Brain Centers for their work in his recovery. But he has remained on a number of medications, and was stunned when he got his blood tests back on Friday.

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program November 13, 2014. (File photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck said his autoimmune disorders are all gone, and his adrenal glands are working “full force.”

“My weight gain is because of all of the medicine that they had me on,” he explained. “All of the sudden my body started working, and so all the medicines they had me on were attacking my body. I didn’t need all of that medicine.”

Beck’s doctors told him they had never seen what happened to him happen before.

“I promised God that if he would just heal me to any extent of his will, I would pronounce the miracle. Last summer when I got my brain back online, I thought that was a miracle, and I pronounced the miracle,” Beck continued. “Today I can rightfully say I have been healed. I want to thank the doctors at the Carrick Brain Center, but more importantly, the architect of our body, God.”

“Believe. God is good. I’ve spent at least the last four years in hell. I would have given up if it weren’t for my wife and my faith,” Beck concluded. “Don’t give up. Miracles happen. Life gets better. You’re needed in the fight.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>207Historian David Barton Takes Apart Obama’s Claim That ‘Islam Has Been Woven Into the Fabric of Our Country Since Its Founding’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/20/historian-david-barton-takes-apart-obamas-claim-that-islam-has-been-woven-into-the-fabric-of-our-country-since-its-founding/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=historian-david-barton-takes-apart-obamas-claim-that-islam-has-been-woven-into-the-fabric-of-our-country-since-its-foundinghttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/20/historian-david-barton-takes-apart-obamas-claim-that-islam-has-been-woven-into-the-fabric-of-our-country-since-its-founding/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=historian-david-barton-takes-apart-obamas-claim-that-islam-has-been-woven-into-the-fabric-of-our-country-since-its-founding#commentsFri, 20 Feb 2015 20:58:19 +0000Erica Ritz“In all the reading I’ve done, thousands of books, there’s nothing there.”
]]>After President Barack Obama said this week that “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding,” Glenn Beck asked historian David Barton to come on his radio program and share some examples of what the president meant.

“In all the reading I’ve done, thousands of books, there’s nothing there,” Barton said on Friday. “I mean, we know that Muslims were the folks who captured the slaves sent to America, largely out of Africa. … The Muslims did the slave hunting and the slave trading, et cetera. The first Muslims came to America as a result of the Muslims capturing them and sending them to the Dutch traders.”

Barton said that beyond their heavy involvement in the slave trade, America was at war with the Barbary pirates shortly after the founding of the country, but those were “the two biggest contributions.”

“This is the fabric,” Beck said with heavy sarcasm. “I mean, it’s practically the whole blanket.”

Historian and Wallbuilders founder David Barton speaks on The Glenn Beck Program November 4, 2014. (File photo: TheBlaze TV)

Barton added that there were a number of Muslims whose activities were recorded in the 1800′s, but it might be a stretch to say they are part of the “fabric of the country.” One such Muslim helped the American military raise camels, he said.

“In 1856 the American military is engaged in all sorts of Indian wars in western lands,” Barton explained. “The secretary of war at that time was Jefferson Davis. Five years later, he would become part of the secession and the president of the Confederacy. But at that time, he’s secretary of war. What they did was they hired a Muslim to raise camels in Arizona because the cavalry said, ‘You know, instead of using horses across the desert, let’s try these camels.’”

“It was a short-lived experiment, but I have to credit their technology,” Barton added. “If you’re going to be in the desert chasing folks, why not use the animals that will go for several days, rather than several hours? But they were just so slow, they couldn’t keep up with the Indians.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

“A bunch of organizations have looked at these metadata programs. The metadata, again, is data about data. It’s the social networks, the traffic analysis. It’s not the content, but who’s talking to who,” Schneier remarked. “Every time you look at this, it is not valuable. … It doesn’t stop terrorist attacks. So why is it being done? That’s an interesting question. It seems like it’s an insurance policy.”

Schneier said if someone told you a foreign government was monitoring its citizens the way the U.S. government monitors its own, you would say it is “obvious” they are trying to control the people.

Beck also spoke with John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, whose organization has come to the aid of people who have spoken out against the U.S. government and faced government retribution.

“They’re watching everything,” Whitehead said. “Everything is in a file. You’re being watched.”

“We are entering a very dangerous new digital existence, and we’re doing it casually!” Beck commented. “We’re just like, ‘Hey, you see this? My television can talk to me!’ Yes it can. But it can also listen to you.”

“The number of ways that we are inviting intrusion into our lives is absolutely astounding and limitless, yet concerns are rarely given much voice,” Beck continued. “Forget the NSA for a moment and let’s talk about hackers. We’re giving them the pick of the litter! In what way would you like to enter my life and steal my identity? In what way would you like to come into my house and record all my conversations? In what way would you like to come into my Wi-Fi and plant false evidence, exact revenge?”

Beck said the world is changing, and asked his audience if they are willing to give up their liberty because “my phone calls to Aunt Edna are boring anyway.”

“Let’s not forget that cell phone that you plug in at your bedside every night,” Beck cautioned. “Let’s not forget all of the conversations that you have with your laptop or your iPad sitting on your lap. … On any given day the average American going about his daily business is going to be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways. That’s you.”

Schneier said he is “short-term pessimistic and long-term optimistic” about the domestic surveillance programs, saying there will likely be corruption and abuse in the coming years until a balance is found. Until that time, he said, the government will keep its “very expensive insurance policy.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>23Rand Paul Responds to Politico ‘Hit Piece’ Criticizing His Position on the Fedhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/19/rand-paul-responds-to-politico-hit-piece-criticizing-his-position-on-the-fed/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=rand-paul-responds-to-politico-hit-piece-criticizing-his-position-on-the-fedhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/19/rand-paul-responds-to-politico-hit-piece-criticizing-his-position-on-the-fed/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=rand-paul-responds-to-politico-hit-piece-criticizing-his-position-on-the-fed#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 19:05:18 +0000Erica Ritz“Let’s go over these point by point.”
]]>Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) appeared on Glenn Beck’s radio program Thursday to respond to what Beck called a “hit piece” in Politico criticizing the senator’s push to audit the Federal Reserve.

“They bring up a lot of points that somebody like me looks at and says, ‘Well, gee, that kind of makes sense. What’s Rand talking about?’ So let’s go over these point by point,” Beck told the senator. “The article says the [Federal Reserve's] finances are already subject to an audit by the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, the Federal Inspector General and outside audit firms.”

Paul suggested Beck watch a “really great exchange” where a congressman asked the Federal Reserve auditor during a committee hearing what was purchased with around $2 trillion. The auditor said they were “not allowed” to audit Federal Reserve bank activities.

“I don’t think that’s a real audit,” Paul said. “We have a bunch of fake audits, and the fake audits don’t reveal any of the information we want to know. We want to know, who are they buying the stuff from? What are they paying for it? Are they paying a fair market rate, or because it’s someone’s brother-in-law, are they actually paying more for something than it’s actually worth?”

“We don’t know any of that so we don’t really have an audit,” Paul continued. “It’s appalling that something Congress created is such an enormous creature, a creature that creates its own money is now lobbying government. They should be forbidden from lobbying government and forbidden from trying to influence legislation. I think it’s appalling that they’re trying to stop any oversight of the Federal Reserve.”

Beck countered that in the Politico article it reads: “Those interested in what’s on the Fed’s balance sheet can find out, down to the individual bond, on the website of the New York Federal Reserve.”

“I think that that’s true and untrue at the same time,” Paul responded. “There are lists of what their assets are, but they aren’t individualized. You can’t tell who they bought them from or whether they were bought at fair market price or whether they were bought at a haircut and whether or not there were any conflicts of interests in the buying and selling.”

The senator said it is “very concerning” how much the Federal Reserve will not disclose, and his push to audit the institution now has overwhelming bipartisan support.

“Now the Fed has got an all-out onslaught and push against this,” Paul said. “And it should worry people that an individual bank that has the monopoly privilege granted to it by Congress is able to print up money to lobby against legislation that would cause more oversight. That should worry all of us.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>45Beck Says There Is a Crucial Reason the U.S. Shouldn’t Send Ground Troops to Fight the Islamic State at This Timehttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/18/beck-says-there-is-a-crucial-reason-the-us-shouldnt-send-ground-troops-to-fight-the-islamic-state-at-this-time/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-says-there-is-a-crucial-reason-the-us-shouldnt-send-ground-troops-to-fight-the-islamic-state-at-this-timehttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/18/beck-says-there-is-a-crucial-reason-the-us-shouldnt-send-ground-troops-to-fight-the-islamic-state-at-this-time/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-says-there-is-a-crucial-reason-the-us-shouldnt-send-ground-troops-to-fight-the-islamic-state-at-this-time#commentsWed, 18 Feb 2015 23:43:57 +0000Erica Ritz“How can you have a sound battle plan or a strategy if you don’t know the goal of the enemy?”
]]>Glenn Beck on Wednesday said it is crucial the United States not send ground troops to fight the Islamic State until the U.S. government and the American people truly understand what motivates the terrorist group.

“Right now we are starting to hear talk in Washington about war and gearing up,” Beck said on his television program. “I warn you, I warn you, don’t do it. … Not until we all understand who we are battling.”

“On the left, they never admit that these guys actually believe in something,” Beck said. “But it really does matter. It does matter. I’m glad to see someone do their own homework and finally call it like it is … especially after all the random folks and the talks of the Crusades, and ‘… what difference [at this point] does it make?’”

“It makes a lot of difference if you’re in a fight for your life. It makes all the difference in the world!” Beck continued. “How can you have a sound battle plan or a strategy if you don’t know the goal of the enemy?”

Beck said if the world truly is headed towards World War III, and those we are fighting are happy to martyr themselves to hasten the end times, it is crucial we not begin the fight “haphazardly.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>115‘For the Record’ season premiere: ‘Unreliable’ on #SpyWeekhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/18/for-the-record-season-premiere-unreliable-on-spyweek/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=for-the-record-season-premiere-unreliable-on-spyweekhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/18/for-the-record-season-premiere-unreliable-on-spyweek/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=for-the-record-season-premiere-unreliable-on-spyweek#commentsWed, 18 Feb 2015 21:02:16 +0000Steve KrakauerWhile you watch tonight’s season premiere episode of For the Record, “Unreliable,” join the conversation here with producers and reporters at TheBlaze. We’ll have behind-the-scenes pictures and details, related links, polls and much more. The live blog begins at 8 p.m. ET.

And stay tuned after “For the Record” for a live Q&A featuring YOUR questions with TheBlaze TV and radio host Buck Sexton. It all begins tonight at 8 p.m. ET, only on TheBlaze TV — all part of #SpyWeek.

]]>4‘The Creepiest Thing I’ve Seen’: Beck Disgusted by Joe Biden’s ‘Disturbing’ Behavior With Womenhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/18/the-creepiest-thing-ive-seen-beck-disgusted-by-vice-president-bidens-disturbing-behavior-with-women/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=the-creepiest-thing-ive-seen-beck-disgusted-by-vice-president-bidens-disturbing-behavior-with-womenhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/18/the-creepiest-thing-ive-seen-beck-disgusted-by-vice-president-bidens-disturbing-behavior-with-women/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=the-creepiest-thing-ive-seen-beck-disgusted-by-vice-president-bidens-disturbing-behavior-with-women#commentsWed, 18 Feb 2015 19:30:40 +0000Erica Ritz“Our vice president is beyond a joke. He’s creepy.”
]]>Glenn Beck on Wednesday said he was disgusted by Vice President Joe Biden’s “disgusting” behavior with women, adding that what Biden did on Tuesday may have been “the creepiest thing” he’s seen yet.

Biden was at the swearing-in of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, but it wasn’t Carter’s speech that was attracting attention: it was Biden’s proximity to Carter’s wife.

This photo taken with an iPhone shows Vice President Joe Biden talking with Stephanie Carter, wife of incoming Defense Secretary Ash Carter, right, during Carter’s swearing in ceremony, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Carter, 60, is President Barack Obama’s fourth secretary of defense. (Nedra Pickler)

“His wife is standing behind the podium, and Joe Biden is like massaging her shoulders and then whispering things in her ear. It is so disturbing,” Beck said. “She’s trying to listen to her husband. It’s her moment of listening to her husband, and she’s got this creep on her!”

“You know she can’t inch away from him because that would make news,” Beck’s co-host Pat Gray added.

“If it wasn’t Joe Biden, there would be legitimate issues popping out. There would be actual claims against this guy,” Stu Burguiere agreed.

“If this were any Republican, people would be all over this,” Beck said. “The only reason why the press isn’t is they don’t want to hurt anybody in their beloved administration. But that’s creepy. I’m sorry. It’s just creepy.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>95‘A Modern-Day Panopticon’: Beck Reveals the Chilling History of America’s ‘Big Brother’ Statehttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/17/a-modern-day-panopticon-beck-reveals-the-chilling-history-of-americas-big-brother-state/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=a-modern-day-panopticon-beck-reveals-the-chilling-history-of-americas-big-brother-statehttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/17/a-modern-day-panopticon-beck-reveals-the-chilling-history-of-americas-big-brother-state/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=a-modern-day-panopticon-beck-reveals-the-chilling-history-of-americas-big-brother-state#commentsWed, 18 Feb 2015 00:00:03 +0000Erica Ritz“History both distant and recent has shown we can’t trust them”
]]>Glenn Beck on Tuesday investigated the history of America’s domestic surveillance programs, saying he is disturbed by the “shockingly cavalier” response to the news that the NSA has been secretly collecting Americans’ telephone records, among other forms of communication.

“[We're] treated like prisoners, guilty until proven innocent,” Beck said. “The amount of personal data the NSA collects on law-abiding citizens is staggering. The amount they plan to collect is nearly beyond comprehension.”

Beck said when surveillance cameras are considered, society today is comparable to a “modern-day panopticon.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his television program Feb. 17, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

“A panopticon was a prison design created in the late 1700s and deemed cruel and unusual punishment,” Beck explained. “The idea behind it was one guard could monitor all of the inmates. The guard would be in the middle of the cells, and all of the cells and everything in them were in his sight line. But the inmates couldn’t see the guard, so they didn’t know exactly when they were being watched. This design never came to fruition — but then again, maybe it has.”

“Now we are perhaps the inmates that know we’re being watched; we just don’t know when the eye is turned on us,” Beck continued. “So how in the world did we go from a people who created and revered the 4th Amendment to being trapped in a panopticon-like society?”

The panopticon was a prison designed to allow a guard to see each of the prisoners, though the prisoners wouldn’t know when they were being watched. (Image via TheBlaze TV)

Beck tracked the history of domestic surveillance programs from 1919 to the modern day, saying “the answer, as always, can be found in history.” He discussed cryptologist Herbert Yardley’s role in creating “the cipher bureau,” also known as “the black chamber” after World War I, calling it “the birthplace of the U.S.’ long history of spying and eavesdropping on foreign governments and its own citizens.”

During World War II, Beck said the American government used its new data-collecting capabilities to confine the Japanese in internment camps. And throughout it all, private companies like the Radio Corporation of America partnered with the U.S. government in the data-collecting effort.

“The pattern was clear: when communication companies are approached by government, they obey,” Beck said. “[Today] the NSA gets reams of information from companies like AT&T, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo. These companies were simply continuing an illegal tradition that began after World War I. It was improved during World War II, and now has been perfected with mass data collection and PRISM.”

Beck said the only difference today is that the NSA “openly argues for the right to spy on you.”

“Ironically, the digital war machine that we helped pioneer is actually the most threatening to us,” Beck said. “Military victory over the U.S. is not an option for most countries or individuals. But victories on the cyber battlefield are not only possible, but inevitable. Our power grid, our water supply, financial systems, even our nuclear reactors are all vulnerable. But the biggest threat is not our infrastructure — individual liberties are the costliest casualties in this new type of war.”

Buck Sexton, TheBlaze’s national security adviser, commented: “Not only do you have, essentially, the archiving of literally everything that every person ever does on the Internet, you also have the government always insisting on easy access to that, not having to go through the court processes. … That’s where we are right now. Everything is archived. It’s retrievable. The government can go through it and you are essentially at their mercy when it comes to your privacy.”

The motto of the government seems to be “just trust us,” Beck said, but “history both distant and recent has shown we can’t trust them.”

“The feds have lied, they’ve broken laws, they’ve intimidated, they’ve even bullied to get their way. And now what they want is backdoor access to nearly every major communications company around,” Beck said. “The pressure to stand against these requests is immense and the consequences can be severe.”

Beck said the U.S. government has the resources to infiltrate an underground nuclear facility in Iran and disable their centrifuges, so it’s “not really hard to imagine the possibilities of what they could do to you.”

“The price to stand on principle has never been costlier,” Beck concluded. “But we have reached yet another crucial pivot point. America’s eyes have been opened. We are now aware of the eyes on us. Now our choice: do we accept the slavery of a societal panopticon, or do we risk everything and stand?”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>58Beck Breaks Down What He Believes the ‘Real Goal’ of Net Neutrality Ishttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/17/beck-breaks-down-what-he-believes-the-real-goal-of-net-neutrality-is/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-breaks-down-what-he-believes-the-real-goal-of-net-neutrality-ishttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/17/beck-breaks-down-what-he-believes-the-real-goal-of-net-neutrality-is/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-breaks-down-what-he-believes-the-real-goal-of-net-neutrality-is#commentsTue, 17 Feb 2015 20:10:22 +0000Erica Ritz“The only media they’re not in control of is the Internet.”
]]>Glenn Beck on Tuesday said the “real goal” of the upcoming FCC vote on net neutrality is to control the flow of information over the Internet.

“It’s minorly about taxes. They’ll come after you with taxes on everything,” Beck said on his radio program. “But this is truly about control. … They’ve tried to take away your guns. They’re trying to take away your voice. They need control of the Internet.”

Beck said proponents of net neutrality are describing it as a way to implement “Internet fairness,” but that is “bull crap.”

“[It] is nothing more than a play for the federal government to be able to clamp down on the Internet,” Beck said. “Like all innovation, the Internet wasn’t created by the government, and the government has no power to control it.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 17, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck said he was shocked by how many people are supporting net neutrality, and suspected it was because they don’t truly understand it.

“We’re talking about a sewer,” Beck analogized. “You’re on a regular street, and everybody is using sewers the way everybody uses sewers. But then a giant hotel comes in and it’s packed all the time. And those little, teeny pipes that were there made for your one-family home … are not big enough to handle all of the sewage that is coming from that hotel.”

Beck said companies like Netflix are the hotel in the analogy, and they are signing on to support net neutrality because they don’t want to pay more for the disproportionate amount of bandwidth they are using. The result of the vote though, Beck said, could have a profound impact on the average individual’s access to a free and open Internet.

“You want a Department of the Internet like we have a Department of the Interior and we have a Department of Internal Revenue Service?” Beck asked. “This is it. You like your health care? You couldn’t keep your health care. You like your Internet?”

“Do you think Glenn Beck could have gotten a license to start a news channel or a news site?” Beck added. “Do you think Matt Drudge could have? Do you think Andrew Breitbart could have? … You’ve heard these discussions many times before from people like Hillary Clinton. Who are the ‘real’ journalists? These citizens reporters, these bloggers, [will be] a thing of the past because you’re not a ‘real’ journalist.”

And Beck said the risk is not just for those in the news industry. He spoke with a caller, identified as Jake in Montana, who said he runs a small Internet company and is concerned that net neutrality will put him out of business. If the government tries to control what his company charges and they begin operating “underwater,” Jake said they won’t be able to stay in business, and that means fewer people in rural areas can get high-speed Internet.

“The only media they’re not in control of is the Internet. Please let your voice be heard,” Beck concluded. “Please sign the petition at the FCC and say no to net neutrality. Find out all the information at GlennBeck.com.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>217‘FTR Field Report’: Former CIA case officer Robert Steelehttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/17/ftr-field-report-former-cia-case-officer-robert-steele/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-field-report-former-cia-case-officer-robert-steelehttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/17/ftr-field-report-former-cia-case-officer-robert-steele/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-field-report-former-cia-case-officer-robert-steele#commentsTue, 17 Feb 2015 12:49:03 +0000Tom OrrAfter the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the Cold War ended, the CIA and other government intelligence organizations underwent some major changes. Budgets shrank, missions became less clear and a lot of the on-the-ground intelligence gathering around the world simply ended.

Following the 9/11 terror attacks, the money started flowing again, but experts who spoke to For the Record say that the hard work of human intelligence in foreign nations is still not being done. And they think that leaves the U.S. vulnerable.

For the Record senior correspondent Sara Carter sat down with former CIA clandestine services case officer Robert Steele to discuss the current state of the American Intelligence complex.

Steele was interviewed as part of For the Record‘s season premiere episode, “Unreliable: America’s Broken Intelligence Network” (Wednesday, Feb. 18, 8:00 p.m. ET on TheBlaze TV).

Listen to the interview on For the Record‘s “Field Report” podcast below:

]]>0‘Genocide’: Jerusalem Post Correspondent Says Christians Are Being ‘Eliminated’ in the Middle Easthttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/16/genocide-jerusalem-post-correspondent-says-christians-are-being-eliminated-in-the-middle-east/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=genocide-jerusalem-post-correspondent-says-christians-are-being-eliminated-in-the-middle-easthttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/16/genocide-jerusalem-post-correspondent-says-christians-are-being-eliminated-in-the-middle-east/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=genocide-jerusalem-post-correspondent-says-christians-are-being-eliminated-in-the-middle-east#commentsMon, 16 Feb 2015 23:45:59 +0000Erica Ritz“There’s no counter-movement right now to tackle this problem.”
]]>Benjamin Weinthal, a European correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, said Monday that “there is a genocide unfolding in the Middle East” and Christians are being “eliminated.”

“I’ve been reporting on Christians in the Middle East for many years now, and the persecution has increased dramatically,” Weinthal said on The Glenn Beck Program. “They don’t have their own sovereign state like Israel, the only country in the region where there’s actually been a growth in the Christian population.”

“It’s one horror after the next, but the west simply fails to internalize what’s unfolding in the Middle East, not only in Libya but Iran … in Syria and Iraq,” Weinthal said. “There’s no counter-movement right now to tackle this problem.”

The Jerusalem Post correspondent lamented the “paucity right now of leadership” to confront radical Islam, and added that he was “reluctant” to say the Obama administration is going to internalize the threat and “develop a real strategy” to defeat it.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>74The movie Glenn Beck suggested people ‘pick up the neighbor’s dog poop’ before seeinghttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/16/the-movie-glenn-beck-suggested-people-pick-up-the-neighbors-dog-poop-before-seeing/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=the-movie-glenn-beck-suggested-people-pick-up-the-neighbors-dog-poop-before-seeinghttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/16/the-movie-glenn-beck-suggested-people-pick-up-the-neighbors-dog-poop-before-seeing/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=the-movie-glenn-beck-suggested-people-pick-up-the-neighbors-dog-poop-before-seeing#commentsMon, 16 Feb 2015 21:57:44 +0000Erica RitzGlenn Beck doesn’t hold back when it comes to movie reviews, and on Monday, jokingly suggested that your time would be better spent “[picking] up the neighbor’s dog poop” than seeing new film “Jupiter Ascending” starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis.

“Avoid it as if it is the plague,” Beck said with a laugh on his radio program. “Don’t rent it. It’s not even worth On Demand.”

Even if you could see the film for free, Beck said you might be happier cleaning toilets than watching it.

“I want to make it clear that I didn’t think this was a good movie,” Beck said. “Go to the circus and put your head down on the hay in some lion dung. Then call the trainer over and say, ‘Can you bring the elephant to just slowly step on my head? I don’t want him to crush it immediately. … But in the end, I want my head totally crushed.’ Do that before you see this movie.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>1Former general: Obama security team’s actions are ‘treasonous’http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/16/former-general-obama-security-teams-actions-are-treasonous/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=former-general-obama-security-teams-actions-are-treasonoushttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/16/former-general-obama-security-teams-actions-are-treasonous/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=former-general-obama-security-teams-actions-are-treasonous#commentsMon, 16 Feb 2015 21:31:01 +0000Chris SalcedoResident Obama’s light footprint/lead-from-behind foreign policy is beginning to yield predictably destructive fruit: Iran continues its march toward a nuclear weapon. The Islamic State holds territory the size of Indiana and is expanding. Militants identifying themselves as Islamic State affiliates just killed 21 Christians in a mass beheading. U.S. allies in Middle East find themselves surrounded by Iran or Iranian clients. The U.S.-backed government in Yemen has been overthrown by Iranian-backed Houthis. To make matters worse in Yemen, as our Marines abandoned yet another Middle Eastern embassy, they were instructed to destroy their weapons in a war zone, an order that reportedly enraged U.S. Central Command.

The confluence of events ushered in by Obama’s leadership, or lack thereof, has caused a great deal of concern among pro-American retired military leaders. Major Gen. Paul Vallely is one such leader. In our interview, not only does he articulate a huge problem with the practical and symbolic ramifications of an American government commanding its troops to disarm in the face of Iranian terror, but he takes direct aim at the Obama security team, calling their actions “treasonous.”

Fallout continues to rage over Obama’s prayer breakfast insanity and Brian William’s struggle with the truth. We covered those during the Chris Salcedo Show, the show that is the antidote to the Brian Williams press.

To hear Major Gen. Paul Vallely’s frank assessment of Team Obama’s actions, cue to 1:34:55:

]]>6Glenn Beck’s Chilling Warning: World War III Is Coming and ‘Nobody Will Recognize It Yet’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/16/glenn-becks-chilling-warning-world-war-iii-is-coming-and-nobody-will-recognize-it-yet/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=glenn-becks-chilling-warning-world-war-iii-is-coming-and-nobody-will-recognize-it-yethttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/16/glenn-becks-chilling-warning-world-war-iii-is-coming-and-nobody-will-recognize-it-yet/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=glenn-becks-chilling-warning-world-war-iii-is-coming-and-nobody-will-recognize-it-yet#commentsMon, 16 Feb 2015 20:47:48 +0000Erica Ritz“What’s coming is the time that you will either have full resolve or you’ll be dead.”
]]>After the Islamic State purportedly beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians over the weekend, Glenn Beck on Monday reiterated his warning that World War III is on the horizon and “nobody will recognize it yet.”

“Just like we were at the beginning of World War II when they invaded Poland, we are entering those times. We just don’t know it yet,” Beck said on his radio program. “There is going to come a time when we will have no choice.”

“What’s coming is the time that you will either have full resolve or you’ll be dead,” Beck said. “There was a time in 1942 where we were all like, ‘OK, the Nazis are evil.’ In 1939, we were still debating it.”

Beck said that until you are willing to say, “To the last man standing — it’s either us or them,” you are not truly fighting.

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 16, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

When most Americans think of war, Beck said, they think of Vietnam or Iraq. But he believes what is coming will be more similar to World War I or World War II.

“Forget about those wars. Those aren’t wars,” Beck said. “Those are military actions. … What I’m telling you is [coming is] World War III. There was moral clarity. It was either us or them. Right after the World Trade Center, we went to go punish the guys. … No. What is coming is they are going to kill you or you are going to kill them.”

Beck made it clear that America will not go to war with all Muslims, just as we did not go to war with all Germans. But just as Nazis were a “plague” who killed their own people, Beck said, so is the Islamic State.

“Do you remember when I said there’s going to come a time when there’s no good choices? … You’re there,” Beck remarked. “You don’t have any good choices left.”

Beck said that when he reads the news, all he sees are all of his “worst nightmares” and his “worst warnings,” the things he was “mocked and belittled” for warning of years ago.

“The collapse of Libya. The collapse of Egypt. The truth about the Muslim Brotherhood. The caliphate that now spreads across the Middle East like a cancer. ISIS, the beheadings, Jews being targeted in Europe,” he said. “Jews now being told by Benjamin Netanyahu, leave Europe. The rise of fascism and the Nazi party. And the targeting of the west by the caliphate in the heart of Europe. All of these things I predicted and warned of. All of this we spoke of. All of this could have been avoided if we weren’t so arrogant, if we would have stopped playing politics.”

“Dear God, forgive us. Forgive us for what we have done and what we have failed to do,” Beck added. “There is so much more yet to come. These are the birth pangs. These are the beginnings of sorrows. The solutions that were within our grasp in the last 8 to 10 years are no longer there.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>321‘FTR’ Producer’s Notebook: The victims of Fort Hoodhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/16/ftr-producers-notebook-the-victims-of-fort-hood/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-producers-notebook-the-victims-of-fort-hoodhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/16/ftr-producers-notebook-the-victims-of-fort-hood/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-producers-notebook-the-victims-of-fort-hood#commentsMon, 16 Feb 2015 19:08:42 +0000Tom OrrAs TheBlaze TV’s For the Record prepares to launch its fourth season, our Producer’s Notebook podcast looks back at one of our most popular episodes.

“Broken Heart” investigated the November 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood that killed 13 people, including a pregnant woman, and touched off a firestorm of controversy over the federal government’s response.

For the Record executive producer Joe Weasel shares some of the experiences from the people who were there that day — powerful stories of survival that we didn’t have time to include in the episode. You can listen to the podcast embedded in this post or on the FTR Soundcloud feed.

And don’t forget: The new season of For the Record premieres Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 8:00 p.m. ET with “Unreliable: America’s Broken Intelligence Network.”

]]>1Glenn Beck Has a Very Different Take on Praised ‘Mama Bear’ Car Crash Storyhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/13/beck-has-a-very-different-take-on-praised-mama-bear-car-crash-story-this-woman-has-issues/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-has-a-very-different-take-on-praised-mama-bear-car-crash-story-this-woman-has-issueshttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/13/beck-has-a-very-different-take-on-praised-mama-bear-car-crash-story-this-woman-has-issues/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-has-a-very-different-take-on-praised-mama-bear-car-crash-story-this-woman-has-issues#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 20:10:38 +0000Erica Ritz“If this was a man… he would have been arrested.”
]]>Glenn Beck opened his radio program Friday with a discussion of a story that has been dominating the headlines recently: that of a woman who ripped a car chase suspect from his vehicle and has been since been dubbed the Texas “mama bear.”

The woman, Jessica Liesman, was recently given a new car by a local Kia dealership, hers having been significantly damaged in the crash.

“They’re calling her mama bear because she was all wound up and she was protecting her young,” Beck said on his radio program. “No, no, she committed assault. She didn’t know there was a high-speed chase happening. … If you are driving and you’re in a car accident, do you have a right to go and pull somebody out of their car and beat them? The answer is, not in a civilized society.”

“If this was a man and he just lost his temper, would we excuse the guy getting for of the car, grabbing the woman, pulling her out, and beating her?” Beck added. “No. Of course not! He would have been arrested.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 13, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

“Categorizing it as a beating seems to be too far,” Beck’s co-host Stu Burguiere objected. “I mean… she slammed the door on him which obviously would have been painful. They kind of push him around. And right when police come up, they throw him to the ground. But they’re not, like, beating him to a bloody pulp as he’s laying there in the fetal position.”

“That guy could have had a heart attack,” Beck said. “She had no idea what caused that car accident. She didn’t know he was being pursued. He could have had a heart attack. Anything could have happened [to have caused the crash]. If I’m in a car accident, I don’t expect someone to do anything but get out and say, ‘Are you okay?’”

“This is a civilized society. We don’t take matters into our own hands,” Beck reiterated. “Why are we giving this woman a car? We’re so screwed up as a nation.”

Beck noted that in the comments section of Liesman’s story on TheBlaze, one commenter wrote that he knows Liesman and she has “serious anger issues.”

“This bullcrap, she’s a mama bear. Her son is out in the busy intersection!” Beck concluded. “This woman has issues.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>159It’s Fairly Common in America, But What This Swedish Family Was Doing Had Them Terrified They’d Be Arrestedhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/12/its-fairly-common-in-america-but-what-this-swedish-family-was-doing-had-them-terrified-theyd-be-arrested/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=its-fairly-common-in-america-but-what-this-swedish-family-was-doing-had-them-terrified-theyd-be-arrestedhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/12/its-fairly-common-in-america-but-what-this-swedish-family-was-doing-had-them-terrified-theyd-be-arrested/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=its-fairly-common-in-america-but-what-this-swedish-family-was-doing-had-them-terrified-theyd-be-arrested#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 01:10:07 +0000Erica Ritz“The more socialism encroaches on you in society … the less [people] think for themselves.”
]]>Lisa Angerstig is originally from Texas, but spent the last 15 years in Sweden, where she has home-schooled her children.

“Your sons are having a hard time adjusting now on not having to look over their shoulder to see if they’re going to be arrested, correct?” Glenn Beck asked her on his television program Thursday during a special on home schooling. “The crime that you were committing over in Sweden was…?”

“Home schooling,” she responded. “At first it was legal. … Then the election came and conservatives came in. We thought we would actually have a greater opportunity to expand home schooling. There were only maybe 100 families in the whole country out of 9 million that were home schooling. And we soon found out after the election that it was going to go not just the other way, but very, very south.”

Angerstig said that “very quickly it was not technically illegal, but permission was denied, denied, denied, denied for people who had been home schooling for ten years or longer, and that’s what happened to us.”

Angerstig said the Home School Legal Defense Association took up her family’s case, taking it through three courts in Sweden and up the EU court, but they did not win.

“As it stands right now, Sweden has the honor of saying that they are the only country that is a democratic country that has made home schooling illegal,” she said, noting that while Germany has strict home schooling laws, they were implemented in the times of fascism.

“It’s a cradle-to-grave society,” Angerstig said of Sweden. “I do love many things about the country — I’m not going to bash everything. But the political system … steps into the rights of the family.”

Angerstig referenced recent cases where children have been taken away from their parents for “no reason” over home schooling.

“One of the things I’ve learned, because I’ve watched both cultures all the way through … one of the biggest things is that the more socialism encroaches on you in society … the less [people] think for themselves,” she warned.

“It is all about keeping the love of learning alive,” she added. “That love that doesn’t stop at 18 or 19, that makes the most amazing entrepreneurs. If you don’t have that, that’s the back-bone of American culture.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>132‘We Are Sending the Wrong Message’: Allen West’s Harsh Foreign Policy Analysishttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/12/we-are-sending-the-wrong-message-allen-wests-harsh-foreign-policy-analysis/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=we-are-sending-the-wrong-message-allen-wests-harsh-foreign-policy-analysishttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/12/we-are-sending-the-wrong-message-allen-wests-harsh-foreign-policy-analysis/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=we-are-sending-the-wrong-message-allen-wests-harsh-foreign-policy-analysis#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 22:31:04 +0000Erica Ritz“There is a complete disconnect.”
]]>Glenn Beck on Thursday interviewed retired Lt. Colonel Allen West for a full hour on his radio program, and asked the former Florida representative about everything from the Islamic State to how to win over black voters.

“There is a complete disconnect,” West said of the strategy to defeat the Islamic State. “How do we defeat them diplomatically? How do we isolate them economically? How do we … leverage information systems to defeat them ideologically? We can’t do that because we have a president that won’t even say Islamic terrorism. How will you defeat the enemy when you don’t recognize the ideology driving them?”

West, recently named the CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, said he would not support President Barack Obama’s resolution authorizing additional military force against the Islamic State because “it does not have any clarity.”

“Can we defeat them without ground troops?” Beck asked. “[Though] I wouldn’t send any ground troops or anybody in until we have moral clarity, because all we’re doing is throwing bodies into something.”

“The only time in the history of United States military we defeated someone with air power [was] Hiroshima, Nagasaki,” West responded. “Otherwise you have to have people up close to destroy the enemy, if that’s the task that you want to achieve, to destroy them.”

“Why would you want to work against your ally, and the best leader that you have on your side?” he asked. “No one is going to join a coalition of the United States of America when the United States of America is not leading. … Not only are we on the wrong side, we are sending the wrong message to our allies.”

West referenced the VA secretary who asked an Iraq war veteran “what have you done?” and added: “We have to be careful about the types of individuals that are up there with this big government, bureaucratic, nanny state, top-down-driven philosophy. We have to find leadership in this country that restores the preeminence of individual rights, but understands how you have to defeat these enemies and protect our country and restore economic growth.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>186Man Who Recovered From 12 Years in a Vegetative State Shares the Horror of Living as a ‘Ghost’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/11/man-who-recovered-from-12-years-in-a-vegetative-state-shares-the-horror-of-living-as-a-ghost/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=man-who-recovered-from-12-years-in-a-vegetative-state-shares-the-horror-of-living-as-a-ghosthttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/11/man-who-recovered-from-12-years-in-a-vegetative-state-shares-the-horror-of-living-as-a-ghost/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=man-who-recovered-from-12-years-in-a-vegetative-state-shares-the-horror-of-living-as-a-ghost#commentsThu, 12 Feb 2015 01:00:19 +0000Erica Ritz“You can hear, see and understand everything around you but you have absolutely no power over anything.”
]]>Martin Pistorius spent 12 years in a vegetative state trapped inside his own body, unable to communicate with anyone. He was only 12 years old when he rapidly went from a seemingly healthy boy to wheelchair-bound and unable to speak. His limbs became “spastic” and his hands and feet “curled in on themselves like claws,” he later recalled. As Pistorius went into a vegetative state, doctors estimated he had only two years to live.

TheBlaze wrote about Pistorius’ miraculous recovery last month, and on Wednesday, Glenn Beck aired an interview where Pistorius shared more about his remarkable story — including how he was sexually abused by his nurses, and how God was integral to his recovery.

Martin Pistorius was 12-years-old when doctors told him he had an unknown degenerative disease and would likely only live two more years. (Image via TheBlaze TV)

Martin Pistorius was 12-years-old when doctors told him he had an unknown degenerative disease and would likely only live two more years. (Image via TheBlaze TV)

“Solitude was the oxygen that gave life to her behavior,” Pistorius wrote in his book “Ghost Boy” of a nurse who abused him for several years. “She always found a way for us to be alone. The first time she touched me, I knew with absolute clarity what she was doing as I felt her hand push questioningly towards my trousers. … She was bolder the next time, her hands lingered there. Soon, she became braver as if realizing opening that door to this darkness wasn’t as terrifying as it might have been. Sometimes she would wrap her legs around me and thrust harder and harder until I began to hear her gasp.”

“I often say it was like being a ghost,” Pistorius told Beck, typing his answers into a computer. “You can hear, see and understand everything around you but you have absolutely no power over anything. For me, that feeling of complete and utter powerlessness is probably the worst feeling I have ever experienced, and I hope I never have to experience again.”

Pistorius said the “darkest moments” were when he wanted to die and realized he couldn’t even do that. He recalled some people talking about how everyone would be better off if he was dead, and says he is not “angry or resentful” since he had the same thoughts.

When Beck asked him if he should have been let go, Pistorius responded: “Everyone is unique and every case is different. In truth, I don’t know the answer to that question. Obviously I am very grateful and thankful that I’m here now, but what I would say is that there is always hope, no matter how small.”

Martin Pistorius holds his wife’s hand as he appears on The Glenn Beck Program Feb. 11, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Pistorius said he could not have recovered without the help of God.

“Through everything I went through I prayed for help, strength and forgiveness for myself and others,” he said. “I gave thanks for the blessings I had and especially for the prayers answered, even if they were as small as someone moving my body into a different position, elevating the pain.”

“For me God is always there, a constant companion,” he added. “Had it not been through God’s hand, I would not be where I am today.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>66The Reason North Texas’ Controversial Islamic Tribunal May Already Be in Trouble With the Lawhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/11/the-reason-north-texas-controversial-islamic-tribunal-may-already-be-in-trouble-with-the-law/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=the-reason-north-texas-controversial-islamic-tribunal-may-already-be-in-trouble-with-the-lawhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/11/the-reason-north-texas-controversial-islamic-tribunal-may-already-be-in-trouble-with-the-law/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=the-reason-north-texas-controversial-islamic-tribunal-may-already-be-in-trouble-with-the-law#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 18:10:48 +0000Erica Ritz“You cannot say that you’re an attorney in the United States of America, and you have no documentation…”
]]>The controversial new Islamic tribunal in north Texas may already be in trouble with the law. Dana contributor Lawrence Jones — who has been following the story and was one of the only members of the media allowed inside the “Stand With the Prophet” event in late January – was perusing the tribunal’s website when he noticed something strange: the four tribunal judges are described as “attorneys,” though not all of them have law degrees.

Image credit: Lawrence Jones

“You cannot say that you’re an attorney in the United States of America, and you have no documentation — especially in Texas,” Jones told Dana Loesch on her television program Tuesday.

As of Wednesday morning, the site appears to have removed the word “attorneys”:

Image credit: IslamicTribunal.org

“I called the state and I called the chair, I actually spoke with him today,” Jones said. “He made it very clear that they have received my complaint. We were one of the first ones to actually get that complaint in. And there is a large group of people that are bringing [forward] this same concern.”

Jones said he was primarily concerned that the tribunal will follow in the footsteps of some in Europe and begin wading into criminal matters, though they have said they intend to deal with civil and family matters exclusively.

The full episode of Dana, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>198What Does Larry Kudlow Find ‘Very Troubling’ in Both the Republican and Democratic Parties?http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/10/what-does-larry-kudlow-find-very-troubling-in-both-the-republican-and-democratic-parties/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=what-does-larry-kudlow-find-very-troubling-in-both-the-republican-and-democratic-partieshttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/10/what-does-larry-kudlow-find-very-troubling-in-both-the-republican-and-democratic-parties/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=what-does-larry-kudlow-find-very-troubling-in-both-the-republican-and-democratic-parties#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 00:30:42 +0000Erica Ritz“That’s got to stop.”
]]>Larry Kudlow, who describes himself as a “Hayekian, free-market classic liberal,” said Tuesday that the government’s tendency to pay people not to work is “very troubling” and has got to stop.

“The culture of entrepreneurship I think is alive and well,” Kudlow said on The Glenn Beck Program. “Trouble is, our government down through the years, under both Republicans and Democrats, has created a whole series of incentives not to work. This is what I find very troubling: they’re going to pay you not to work.”

Kudlow cited unemployment insurance of up to 99 weeks, adding: “As soon as we stopped it, people started going back to work. How about that?”

Kudlow also said Obamacare is “essentially premised on the fact that if you get a job and succeed and your income goes up, they will take away the Obamacare subsidies and tax credits. They are basically paying you not to work. That’s got to stop.”

Beck and Kudlow also discussed potential future leaders, and the CNBC senior contributor said retired four-star General Jack Keane is the only person he’s heard who addresses the threat of radical Islam “straight-up.”

“I had him on the radio show … and he said, ‘This is like fighting communism, and we better understand this.’ And I don’t think we do,” Kudlow related. He added that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal also recognizes the threat, while President Barack Obama “won’t even acknowledge that it’s an Islamic problem.”

Beck asked Kudlow what he thinks will happen if America’s economy collapses, weighing in: “When we wake up to our horrible situation all around the world, I think people are going to be screaming for blood and screaming for a strongman to fix it, as they are now in Greece.”

“I’m a lot more optimistic about the economy, assuming we’re still a free country,” Kudlow responded with a smile. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: you and I and like-minded people who believe in freedom — I can sit down with you and fix the economy. Give me a half hour. … I’ve been doing it for close to 40 years. The principles don’t change.”

Both Beck and Kudlow struggled with alcoholism in the past, and agreed that “there are a lot of lessons to be learned” in bottoming out and having to pull yourself back up.

“The bottom was a lot worse than I ever thought,” Kudlow said. “I lost some awfully good jobs along the way in the late 80′s, early 90′s. I lost a Wall Street career. I had a career in journalism; I lost that. I had been doing a lot of broadcasting; I lost that. It’s very hard to hold a job, Glenn, if you don’t ever show up for it. It’s one of the lessons I learned.”

Kudlow said part of his “new world mantra” is just to “show up.”

“I’m, God’s grace, coming up to 20 years. And I show up [for] everything, everything,” Kudlow said. “Unless I’m really three-quarters dead, I’m going to show up, I don’t care how bad I am.”

Kudlow shared how his faith and his wife of 27 years have kept him on the right path, saying he’s not a “proselytizer,” but he is immensely grateful.

“I’m grateful to have work, interviews. Every night for 12 years I’m grateful for a TV show on CNBC that I just love. When I couldn’t do it anymore, they re-wrote the contract and kept me on as a commentator. I have a radio show that’s high-ranked. I’m just grateful for my whole life.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>57‘This Is Wrong and It Needs to Be Stopped’: Beck Unpacks Interview With Texas Islamic Tribunal Judgeshttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/10/this-is-wrong-and-it-needs-to-be-stopped-beck-unpacks-interview-with-texas-islamic-tribunal-judges/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=this-is-wrong-and-it-needs-to-be-stopped-beck-unpacks-interview-with-texas-islamic-tribunal-judgeshttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/10/this-is-wrong-and-it-needs-to-be-stopped-beck-unpacks-interview-with-texas-islamic-tribunal-judges/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=this-is-wrong-and-it-needs-to-be-stopped-beck-unpacks-interview-with-texas-islamic-tribunal-judges#commentsTue, 10 Feb 2015 18:37:41 +0000Erica Ritz“You can see that he’s lying.”
]]>Glenn Beck on Tuesday said the new Islamic tribunal in north Texas is “wrong and it needs to be stopped.”

“The first [Islamic] tribunal in American history is being set up just a few miles away from our studios in of all places Irving, Texas,” Beck said on his radio program. “There is a real concerted effort by the Muslims to take this area and make it into Dearborn, Michigan, and I’m really not that interested in having my studios in Dearborn, Michigan.”

“I [didn't] really expect them to say anything other than, ‘Hey, we’re all friends here. Everything will be great,’” Beck began. “We have the imam and a doctor of Islamic law. The doctor doesn’t say much during the interview for about eight minutes. The imam is just towing the line, and he is saying all the right things. ‘This is just about marriage. This is no big deal. And Shariah law … is not what you think it is.’ He denounced Hamas. And it was at the denunciation of Hamas that the doctor then steps up.”

Beck played audio of Dr. Taher el Badawi defending Shariah law, saying “A cut head is just not in Shariah law, just in Islamic law. It’s everywhere. Who says that’s just in Islamic law? That’s even another Shariah, in Jewish Shariah, in Christian Shariah. In America here we would cut head for some reason.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 10, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

“Look how many millions of dollars America here or other states or other — outside, spend for — to — to keep the criminal in jail,” Badawi continued. “A lot of millions of dollars. We can save that.”

But after defending Shariah law, Badawi concluded: “So back please to the point: Islamic tribunal, yes, we never deal with anything of that. It is not — we don’t have authority of that. We have no power.”

Beck was stunned by the man’s defense of beheadings and the chopping off of hands, noting that the imam “was making the case all the way through that Shariah law has nothing to do with the cutting off of hands or heads.”

“The imam … kept quoting things from the Koran, all the great things in the Koran,” Beck continued. “And I said, ‘You know, it also says … that you should kill Jews, and trees and rocks will cry out and say, oh, Abdullah, there’s a Jew hiding behind me, come kill him.’ And he was adamant, absolutely not.”

When Beck asked if the line was in the Hadith, the imam did not give a direct answer, which made Beck say on Tuesday: “He knew. And you can see it. You can see that he’s lying. Why should we deal with anyone on face value if they are … caught lying that quickly?”

“How are we to deal with this now in our community?” Beck continued. “Because they’re now telling us that this is not going to affect anything but marriages. But if you listen to him on the marriages, here’s the problem: If somebody is married under Islamic law and you’re in this Islamic community, if he doesn’t give you a divorce … what does that mean for her?”

Beck discussed the example the imam gave of a woman who was married in Djibouti, and came to America without her husband after receiving asylum.

“It seemed like it was kind of a sham kind of marriage,” Beck said. “You are given to your husband by the father. … You can be married at nine. It’s not the same kind of marriage that we have over here. … But she has to get a release for her life, she has to get a release from this imam. He said no, because I can’t notify him.”

Beck said if the woman starts a relationship with another man, she could be ostracized from the community, but “more importantly, she’s now marked for an honor killing.”

“That’s why divorce matters in these situations,” Beck said. “They’re going for the immigrant communities. These people who are coming over from different parts of the world, they don’t know our system of justice. They don’t know anything. And they’re coming over here, and these courts are keeping them in the same kind of slavery that they were in overseas.”

“This is wrong and it needs to be stopped,” Beck concluded. “This is the war on women. The ones who get hurt in this are women.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>188Watch the Fiery Conversation Between Glenn Beck and the Leaders of Texas’ Controversial New Islamic Tribunalhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/09/watch-the-fiery-conversation-between-glenn-beck-and-the-leaders-of-texas-controversial-new-islamic-tribunal/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=watch-the-fiery-conversation-between-glenn-beck-and-the-leaders-of-texas-controversial-new-islamic-tribunalhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/09/watch-the-fiery-conversation-between-glenn-beck-and-the-leaders-of-texas-controversial-new-islamic-tribunal/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=watch-the-fiery-conversation-between-glenn-beck-and-the-leaders-of-texas-controversial-new-islamic-tribunal#commentsTue, 10 Feb 2015 01:13:51 +0000Erica Ritz“Not true.”
]]>Glenn Beck on Monday interviewed Imam Moujahed Bakhach and Taher el Badawi, two of the four judges of the controversial new Islamic tribunal in Irving, Texas.

The imam said it is a “misconception” that Shariah law allows for abuse, slavery and the stoning of homosexuals, and the tribunal will only deal with civil matters. Criminal issues will be left to the state.

“Cutting the hand off or chopping the head — this is not Shariah. It is not Shariah,” Bakhach stated. “What we see overseas now with ISIS, ISIL, the whole Muslim world condemn that and rejected it, unacceptable.”

But Beck said it is “not true” that the whole Muslim world rejects the Islamic State, asking: “Where does the reformation come from then? Because you’re saying you don’t practice that kind of Shariah law. Who’s the reformer that you look to?”

“Jews and Christians don’t believe that man making laws is an abomination,” Beck added. “Where it’s my understanding that in the Islamic culture, man doesn’t make laws. God makes laws.”

“The Shariah, who’s behind the Shariah?” Bakhach said, growing heated. “The Shariah means a holy text mentioned, whether general or specific. For example, Muslims, we do not drink alcohol. Why? Because God says in the Koran, ‘Don’t drink alcohol.’ … My point really I want to make clear here is not the issue of cutting the hands, and even the criminal law is not just because somebody steal and then cut the hand. It’s not that way. There is a system of investigation, a system of hearing, a system of finding out if he’s a criminal.”

The imam discussed Shariah law further, highlighting its role in families and daily life, adding: “It is not just cutting or chopping, it is not the issue.”

“But I think where people come from is, there has been no reformation,” Beck said. “Our president just accused Christians of slaughtering people during the Crusades, but there’s been a reformation. There’s no reformation in Islam. For instance, the Koran says that ‘the trees and the rocks will cry out, there’s a Jew hiding behind…’”

“It’s not true,” the imam retorted. “I challenge you to bring me that.”

The imam prevaricated when Beck asked if the statement was in the Hadith, and Beck later found out that it was.

“If we can’t trust an imam, a scholar who knows the Hadith … and he denies that he’s ever even heard that, how do we trust the rest of what he said?” Beck asked.

Daniel Ghasem Akbari, a scholar of Islam who converted to Christianity, told Beck later in the program: “The first point is, nobody should expect an American anchor to know everything about all angles of Islam. If he’s honest, he has to correct and say, ‘Sir, what you are talking about, that’s not in the Koran, that’s in the Hadith. … Shariah Law is a combination of the laws that come from both the Koran and the Hadith.’”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>397Senator Blasts Net Neutrality as the Creation of a ‘Department of the Internet’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/09/senator-blasts-net-neutrality-as-the-creation-of-a-department-of-the-internet/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=senator-blasts-net-neutrality-as-the-creation-of-a-department-of-the-internethttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/09/senator-blasts-net-neutrality-as-the-creation-of-a-department-of-the-internet/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=senator-blasts-net-neutrality-as-the-creation-of-a-department-of-the-internet#commentsMon, 09 Feb 2015 19:30:31 +0000Erica Ritz“The government will decide what is neutral.”
]]>Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse says the term “net neutrality” is misleading, and what the Obama administration’s proposal would really do is create a “department of the Internet.”

“This is like the Fairness Doctrine for the Internet, where the government will decide what is neutral,” Sasse said on Glenn Beck’s radio program Monday. “We’ve never had this in the past on the Internet, and it is a dangerous place.”

Sasse said what FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler is doing under pressure from the Obama administration is applying “80-year-old telecommunications law to the Internet in a way that’s never been done.”

“For there to be a vibrant Internet echosphere, you don’t want the government to sit in the way of that and determine who is legitimate, who should be privileged, who has paid the right fees to whom and who supplicated at the right bureaucratic agency,” Sasse said.

The Obama administration says “an entrepreneur’s fledgling company should have the same chance to succeed as established corporations, and that access to a high school student’s blog shouldn’t be unfairly slowed down to make way for advertisers with more money,” so companies should not be allowed to block or throttle a person’s Internet access, among other mandates.

“This is a government bureaucracy in search of being an Orwellian solution for problems that don’t exist,” Sasse responded. “The Federal Trade Commission already has laws that would prohibit the things they say they’re trying to guard against. Contact your congressman and senators and tell them that if there’s a debate that should be had about the governance of the Internet, it should be had in the legislature, not in unaccountable … permanent bureaucracies.”

The senator said people can also contact the FCC and leave public comments for the next several weeks if they wish to speak out against net neutrality.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>98Former DIA director identifies disconnect between intelligence and policymakershttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/09/former-dia-director-identifies-disconnect-between-intelligence-and-policymakers/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=former-dia-director-identifies-disconnect-between-intelligence-and-policymakershttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/09/former-dia-director-identifies-disconnect-between-intelligence-and-policymakers/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=former-dia-director-identifies-disconnect-between-intelligence-and-policymakers#commentsMon, 09 Feb 2015 13:14:33 +0000Tom OrrAmerican leaders are failing to adapt their strategies to new threats identified by intelligence organizations, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency said.

Retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn sat down with TheBlaze TV’s For the Recordsenior investigative correspondent Sara Carter for an exclusive interview about the growing threats to the United States and the challenges facing American intelligence. As the military equivalent of the CIA, the DIA calls itself ”the principal source of foreign intelligence to combat-related missions.”

“We have to be the ones that sort of are the truthsayers, if nothing else,” Flynn told TheBlaze.

“What I’ve learned is, as an intelligence officer, from the beginning of my career, I typically wasn’t the guy that was going to bring in the good news in the morning,” Flynn said. “My responsibility was to define the threats that we were facing.”

But Flynn said new information frequently was ignored by leadership, who refused to adapt to emerging threats.

“So I tell my boss this is what the enemy is, this is who the enemy is, this is how I think the enemy’s going to fight us. So if he decides to continue to fight his plan and not the enemy, that’s a mistake. And I think that, I’ve seen that, I’ve seen that quite a bit actually, where, you know, you disregard the threats that you’re facing and you stick to a plan, and the plan has no connection to the threats that we’re facing.”

Flynn’s interview will be part of For the Record‘s season premiere episode, “Unreliable: America’s Broken Intelligence Network,” Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 8:00 p.m. ET on TheBlaze TV.

]]>6Girls with guns! Do you know about TheBlaze TV show, ‘Ammo & Attitude’?http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/07/girls-with-guns-do-you-know-about-theblaze-tv-show-ammo-attitude/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=girls-with-guns-do-you-know-about-theblaze-tv-show-ammo-attitudehttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/07/girls-with-guns-do-you-know-about-theblaze-tv-show-ammo-attitude/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=girls-with-guns-do-you-know-about-theblaze-tv-show-ammo-attitude#commentsSat, 07 Feb 2015 16:36:04 +0000Mike Opelka“Since 2001, the number of women target shooters has grown from 3.3 million to 5.4 million — a staggering 60% increase.”
]]>According to a recent study from the nonprofit National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), women comprise one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the world of competitive shooting.

Image: NSSF.org screen grab

The NSSF study showed that since 2001 the number of women target shooters has grown from 3.3 million to 5.4 million – a staggering 60 percent increase.

The retail industry has noticed a significant uptick in sales to women as well. From 2012 to 2013, 73 percent of gun stores report seeing more women shopping in their establishments.

The study NSSF study, conducted in 2014, found also found that firearms retailers saw a 25 percent growth in sales to female customers.

Among the top three reasons more women have started buying guns are self defense, hunting and competitive shooting.

Image: NSSF.org screen grab

The interest in competitive shooting was noted by the entertainment industry and two years ago, “Ammo & Attitude” was born.

On this week’s episode of TheBlaze radio’s “Pure Opelka,” I spoke with the show’s host, Randi Rogers. A holder of 40 different world and national shooting titles, Rogers explained the show’s background and even shared a little inside information on the upcoming season six.

(Spoiler alert: Season six will feature past champions competing in all new shooting challenges, with some CrossFit physical tests included as well.)

Listen to the segment featuring Randi Rogers, the host of “Ammo & Attitude.” (Rogers appears at the 21-minute mark of the recording.)

Curious about what happens on Ammo and Attitude? Here’s a glimpse of the action from last week’s show.

]]>21‘Your Argument Makes No Sense’: Beck’s Question for Obama After Controversial Prayer Breakfast Speechhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/06/your-argument-makes-no-sense-becks-question-for-obama-after-controversial-prayer-breakfast-speech/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=your-argument-makes-no-sense-becks-question-for-obama-after-controversial-prayer-breakfast-speechhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/06/your-argument-makes-no-sense-becks-question-for-obama-after-controversial-prayer-breakfast-speech/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=your-argument-makes-no-sense-becks-question-for-obama-after-controversial-prayer-breakfast-speech#commentsFri, 06 Feb 2015 18:55:18 +0000Erica Ritz“Please, Mr. President, pipe down.”
]]>President Barack Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday stunned Glenn Beck, who described it as a “lecture” to Americans not to “wag our fingers at [the Islamic State] for executing, crucifying, setting people on fire, because we all remember exactly what Christianity did a thousand years ago.”

“Good Lord help us,” Beck said on his radio program Friday. “Mr. President, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve had a reformation since then.”

Beck asked the president what he would have done if he had been alive during the Crusades or the Inquisition. Would he have stood up to injustice, or would he have said, “we shouldn’t judge?”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 6, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

“Would you have been a Martin Luther?” Beck continued. “Would you have had the balls to put up a manifesto on the church doors saying, ‘You must change?’ Or would you have said, ‘Hey… That has nothing to do with Christianity.’”

Just days after the Islamic State put a captured Jordanian pilot in a cage and burned him alive, Obama condemned those who “seek to hijack religions for their own murderous ends.”

“Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said.

Beck also said he was tired of the president lecturing the nation on “who we are,” always seemingly assuming the worst of the people, like that there will be an anti-Muslim backlash as a result of ISIS’ killings.

“You don’t know who we are,” Beck said flatly. “You listened to [Rev. Jeremiah Wright] for years and years, and he certainly is not a preacher of love and peace and contentment. … You are the one out of touch with the mainstream of America. You have no idea who we really are.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>150‘Dana’ segment ruthlessly mocks Brian Williams after NBC anchor forced to retract Iraq war storyhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/06/dana-segment-ruthlessly-mocks-brian-williams-after-nbc-anchor-forced-to-retract-iraq-war-story/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=dana-segment-ruthlessly-mocks-brian-williams-after-nbc-anchor-forced-to-retract-iraq-war-storyhttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/06/dana-segment-ruthlessly-mocks-brian-williams-after-nbc-anchor-forced-to-retract-iraq-war-story/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=dana-segment-ruthlessly-mocks-brian-williams-after-nbc-anchor-forced-to-retract-iraq-war-story#commentsFri, 06 Feb 2015 15:41:09 +0000Erica RitzTheBlaze TV’s Dana on Thursday ruthlessly mocked NBC anchor Brian Williams after he was forced to retract a claim he has made for 12 years, that his helicopter was hit and forced down by RPG fire in Iraq.

‘Dana’ contributor Ben Howe donned a toupee and pretended to be Williams, making a number of lavish claims before retracting them.

“Last week, I told you about a harrowing experience I had while breaking into the Kremlin some years ago to end the Cold War,” he said solemnly. “It turns out I misremembered a portion of the story, and I would like to apologize…”

He also discussed the Iraq war, commenting: “Pentagon sources tell me that my absence from the region has had a tremendously deleterious effect on the people not seen in, quote, ‘a thousand, million generations.’ We are also getting a late breaking update that merely by reporting this information, I have driven ISIS into hiding. I’ll keep you updated as my influence grows.”

But shortly thereafter he was forced to admit that his Twitter hashtag #ISISISCRAYCRAY has not yet solved the crisis.

“I’m also being told I that never used it in a tweet, and I’ve never tweeted,” he added, before signing off: “As always, you can trust me.”

The full episode of Dana, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>6Update on Feb. 3 ‘FTR Field Report’ podcasthttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/06/update-on-february-3-field-report-podcast/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=update-on-february-3-field-report-podcasthttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/02/06/update-on-february-3-field-report-podcast/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=update-on-february-3-field-report-podcast#commentsFri, 06 Feb 2015 09:46:30 +0000Tom OrrOn February 3, For The Record posted a podcast featuring correspondent Sara Carter interviewing a journalist operating in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. That journalist spoke about some of the dangers he faced and used a pseudonym on the podcast due to concerns about possible reprisals.

After that podcast was posted, that journalist began receiving direct threats.

Out of concern for that individual’s safety, For The Record has removed that podcast from our account.

]]>1Beck Says the Tea Party Has to Change Its Name: ‘We’ve Got to Find New Language’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/05/beck-says-the-tea-party-has-to-change-its-name-weve-got-to-find-new-language/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-says-the-tea-party-has-to-change-its-name-weve-got-to-find-new-languagehttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/05/beck-says-the-tea-party-has-to-change-its-name-weve-got-to-find-new-language/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-says-the-tea-party-has-to-change-its-name-weve-got-to-find-new-language#commentsFri, 06 Feb 2015 00:00:52 +0000Erica Ritz“They’re shape-shifters. You have to constantly shift with them.”
]]>Glenn Beck on Thursday begged the Tea Party to find a new way to identify itself, saying the name has been “so maligned that people stop hearing you now.”

“We’ve got to find new language,” Beck said on his television program. “[On the left], they’re shape-shifters. You have to constantly shift with them.”

Tea Party activists attend a rally on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, June 19, 2013. (Photo: AP)

Beck made it clear that he is not saying the Tea Party should change their values or principles, only the “language and names and labels.”

“You stand here with the truth, but you understand that they are going to continually shift their shape,” Beck said. “Good. So will I.”

Beck has frequently discussed how progressives first identified themselves as progressives, then became liberals and Democrats before coming back to progressives. He has also discussed the left’s use of language in matters like abortion, and how “pro-choice” is much more persuasive language than some potential alternatives.

Beck reiterated that “the truth won’t change, love will not change,” only the names and labels will.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>249Beck: What Jordanian & US Leaders Did After Islamic State Killing Shows America Has Become the ‘Biggest Wuss on the Planet’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/05/beck-what-jordanian-us-leaders-did-after-islamic-state-killing-shows-america-has-become-the-biggest-wuss-on-the-planet/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-what-jordanian-us-leaders-did-after-islamic-state-killing-shows-america-has-become-the-biggest-wuss-on-the-planethttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/05/beck-what-jordanian-us-leaders-did-after-islamic-state-killing-shows-america-has-become-the-biggest-wuss-on-the-planet/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-what-jordanian-us-leaders-did-after-islamic-state-killing-shows-america-has-become-the-biggest-wuss-on-the-planet#commentsThu, 05 Feb 2015 20:17:27 +0000Erica Ritz“This mealy-mouthed wishy-washy apologist is going to be the death of us.”
]]>Glenn Beck on Thursday said the respective actions of Jordan’s King Abdullah and U.S. President Barack Obama after the Islamic State burned a Jordanian pilot alive shows America has become the “biggest wuss on the planet.”

While the Jordanian king responded swiftly and forcefully, executing two prisoners and reportedly quoting Clint Eastwood in his warnings for the Islamic State, the American president met with Muslim leaders in the hope of preventing any anti-Muslim backlash.

“The Jordanians are getting tough on this,” Beck said on his radio program. “The United States is the biggest wuss on the planet. … There’s no one who fears us. There’s no one who respects us anymore.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 5, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck said he found it “amazing” that Democrats criticized former President George W. Bush as too much of a “cowboy,” but that is seemingly who the Jordanians are crying out for.

“Here’s King Abdullah actually quoting the most famous cowboy in Hollywood!” Beck remarked. “While Jordan was talking about going after ISIS, our president was talking about going after Americans who might be discriminating against Muslims.”

Beck made it clear that he, and nobody he knows, would ever support an anti-Muslim backlash because of the actions of the Islamic State. But he also warned that the longer the president says, “you’re a bad people… the more likely you will become a bad people.”

Beck also expressed shock that White House Press Secretary Josh Ernest could not plainly state the administration’s support of Jordan’s actions after the horrific attack on its pilot.

“This mealy-mouthed wishy-washy apologist is going to be the death of us,” Beck said. “We’re headed towards war. What I’ve been warning about is upon us now.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>127Glenn Beck: Does God’s Name Tell Us That ‘The Good Guys Win in the End’?http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/04/does-gods-name-tell-us-that-the-good-guys-win-in-the-end/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=does-gods-name-tell-us-that-the-good-guys-win-in-the-endhttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/04/does-gods-name-tell-us-that-the-good-guys-win-in-the-end/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=does-gods-name-tell-us-that-the-good-guys-win-in-the-end#commentsThu, 05 Feb 2015 00:45:09 +0000Erica Ritz“The key here, for me, is the name of God.”
]]>Most people believe “the good guys win in the end,” and Glenn Beck on Wednesday said there is a biblical foundation for that belief. A friend of Beck’s recently gave him a copy of the Torah, and he said there is “real clarity” in some of the nuance that didn’t make the King James Bible.

“The key here, for me, is the name of God,” Beck said on his television program Wednesday. “The name of God in Hebrew is different, and it changes throughout the story of creation. The first time you see the word — ‘In the beginning…’ that word God there actually means ‘justice.’”

“What it’s saying to you is that every single thing that God created, everything, is geared towards justice,” Beck continued. “So that’s why we all know it to be true, the good guys win in the end. It may not happen the way you hoped. It may not happen in your lifetime. But the good guys win in the end. Why? Because the structure, from the seas to the stars, it’s made for justice. It always bends back.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his television program Feb. 4, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck was also amazed by how the name of God meant “mercy” after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

“Instead of being angry, vengeful, his name is mercy,” Beck said. “He makes them clothing. Think about how much love he has! You’ve just pissed him off. You’ve just broken all the rules, done everything you weren’t supposed to do. He protects you, and then he’s like, ‘OK, I have to get my glasses, a needle and thread, I’m going to make you some underpants.’ How great is that?”

Beck said he has been reading the scriptures for the last few weeks, and has drawn a number of conclusions. The first, he said, is “Be careful what side you’re on … because any shortcut you take, you’re going to be on the wrong side; it’s going to bend towards justice.”

“And in that meantime, when you’re feeling all the thorns … he’s up there knitting you underpants,” Beck concluded with a laugh. “He loves you. He’s taking care of you. No matter how pissed he might be at us, he loves us, and everything’s going to be OK.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

Beck began his radio program by discussing the Islamic State’s horrific execution of a captured Jordanian pilot, saying he originally did not want to post the images of the man being burned alive, but he decided Americans can’t shield themselves from what is happening.

When one caller suggested we fly those responsible up to 30,000 feet and “kick their behinds right out,” Beck cautioned that while Americans must be aware of the evil of the Islamic State, they must not emulate “its callousness and coldness, its anger, its viciousness.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program February 4, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck also condemned the media for “denying reality” by focusing on the issue of vaccines — when most agree they are a modern miracle, but some object to making them government mandated — at a time when he believes “real, honest-to-God problems” like the Islamic State should be the main topic of discussion.

“Why don’t we look for the big things, like the fact that Russia has just banned homosexuals from having a driver’s license?” Beck asked. “How many Americans even know this? … [The Islamic State] is taking homosexuals to the top of the roof … and throwing them off the top of the roof!”

Beck said he believes the world is “at the beginning” of everything that he has been warning about for years, and “now it is all here, and now people can begin to see it.”

“Now people can begin to say, ‘Wait a minute, there is a caliphate. Wow, they are going to try to kill all of us. … Nazism and communism are coming back. The hatreds of the 1930s — there are people talking about killing the Jews.”

“I think we are at the beginning of our globe radically changing,” Beck said.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>142Author of ‘The Sistine Secrets’ Shares Something You May Not Know About Michelangelo’s Famous Ceilinghttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/03/author-of-the-sistine-secrets-shares-something-you-may-not-know-about-michelangelos-famous-ceiling/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=author-of-the-sistine-secrets-shares-something-you-may-not-know-about-michelangelos-famous-ceilinghttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/03/author-of-the-sistine-secrets-shares-something-you-may-not-know-about-michelangelos-famous-ceiling/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=author-of-the-sistine-secrets-shares-something-you-may-not-know-about-michelangelos-famous-ceiling#commentsWed, 04 Feb 2015 01:45:01 +0000Erica Ritz“What a daring statement!”
]]>Rabbi Benjamin Blech, an associate professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and co-author of “The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican,” said Michelangelo left messages of peace and unity for the world at a time when religious strife was wreaking havoc throughout Europe.

Jews in particular were being persecuted at the time, and though Michelangelo was commissioned to do an image of Jesus and Mary for the Sistine Chapel, he primarily showed images from the Old Testament instead.

“This is one of the most interesting, fascinating parts of the story. He is given a commission, the commission is to do the ceiling in honor of Jesus and Mary,” Blech told Glenn Beck on Tuesday. “When it was finished, it had to be a total shock to the pope, because here is something meant to glorify Jesus and Mary. 95 percent of the ceiling is Old Testament, is Jewish figures, prophetic figures. 5 percent is pagan. There isn’t a single Christian New Testament figure in the frescoes.”

The rabbi reiterated that, though some have criticized his book as anti-Catholic, that is “absolutely” not the intention. He is highlighting how Michelangelo disagreed with the cruelty of Pope Julius II while still honoring the church.

“1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain,” Blech said. “The entire world in the name of Christianity [is] crucifying the Jewish people, and this bothered Michelangelo to no end. Not because in particular he was solely a lover of Jews, but because he had this concept of God being the God of all people. He was opposed to fanaticism of any kind.”

“When he was given the task of doing the Sistine Chapel ceiling, he wanted to give messages, messages of love, messages of understanding,” Blech added. “In fact, the very messages that I would daresay today the church acknowledges and embraces after Vatican II.”

Michelangelo was forced to add images of Jesus years later, Blech said, but his original work could have caused him to be killed if he was not so well-known.

Journalists stare at the Sisitne Chapel with its new lighting during a press visit at the Vatican on October 29, 2014. AFP PHOTO / Filippo MONTEFORTE / MUSEI VATICANI

“You have to understand that his fame, his art, his ability subsequently made it impossible for the church to condemn the work,” Blech said. “So what they did was re-explain it.”

The rabbi referenced numerous images in the chapel that he said prominent docents have failed to comprehend, or described away with phrases like, “nobody can figure out what this means.” But Blech said a knowledge of Judaism — which Michelangelo had been taught by his tutor Pico della Mirandola — makes the images perfectly understandable.

The rabbi referenced a scroll with the word “ALEF” and a Hebrew letter meaning seventy written on it, which he said means one God for all seventy nations. And when Michelangelo later added images of Jesus, he continued to defend those who were being persecuted. When he depicted Jesus among the righteous, he included a Jew with the group.

“What in the world is he doing among the righteous?” Blech asked. “Don’t people who reject Jesus lose all share in the world to come? … Here in the 1500s Michelangelo is saying Jews can be up in heaven. What a daring statement!”

Blech said Michelangelo is “hitting you over the head” with messages of peace and tolerance for other religions in the Sistine Chapel, embracing a “far more a universalistic vision of a God who loves all his children” than some of his contemporaries.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>68Beck Says Vaccine Controversy Highlights How We Are ‘Living in the Days of Galileo’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/03/beck-says-vaccine-controversy-highlights-how-we-are-living-in-the-days-of-galileo/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-says-vaccine-controversy-highlights-how-we-are-living-in-the-days-of-galileohttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/03/beck-says-vaccine-controversy-highlights-how-we-are-living-in-the-days-of-galileo/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=beck-says-vaccine-controversy-highlights-how-we-are-living-in-the-days-of-galileo#commentsTue, 03 Feb 2015 22:00:20 +0000Erica Ritz“The church has become the state.”
]]>Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R) said Monday that while he is a “big fan” of vaccinations, he does not support the idea that the government should force individuals to be vaccinated. His statements, along with those of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie saying parents should have a say in the matter, have infuriated some who believe vaccines should be mandatory.

Glenn Beck on Tuesday came to Dr. Paul’s defense, saying that while he too supports vaccines, he does not support government-mandated injections.

“Everybody has a choice. But you can’t take away people’s choice to augment or change their body,” Beck said. “I mean, ‘US out of my uterus.’ How about the ‘US out of my arm’? You don’t have a right to inject me with things.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Feb. 3, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

“The left is now trying to claim the high ground on this whole thing,” Beck’s co-host Stu Burguiere added. “But the biggest, most visible anti-vaccination people over this entire period have been on the left. RFK Jr. is the biggest anti-vaccine guy out there. Jenny McCarthy is no conservative.”

Beck asked why the left is seemingly attempting to isolate and destroy political opponents on an issue we can all agree on, saying nobody wants a measles outbreak and everyone can agree that you can refuse to vaccinate your children, but businesses and schools can then refuse to accept them.

“We don’t have a right to bash each other and say, ‘You’re a moron and I’ll strap you down to this table’ or ‘I’ll take your children from you,’” Beck said. “You don’t have a right to do that.”

Beck said Americans need to realize how many people have been “destroyed” or “totally discredited” for having an opinion slightly different than what is dominant at the moment in Washington.

“Where is anybody saying, ‘My gosh, we’re living in the days of Galileo! The church has become the state. And if you don’t practice their religion exactly the way they tell you to practice it, you’re done,’” Beck asked. “How many people have lost their jobs? Have lost their credibility? … We have got to unite. We’ve got to stand together.”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>151Buck Sexton Shares the Moment George Bush Called Him a ‘Fancy Boy’ Before Paying Him a Memorable Complimenthttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/02/buck-sexton-shares-the-moment-george-bush-called-him-a-fancy-boy-before-paying-him-a-memorable-compliment/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=buck-sexton-shares-the-moment-george-bush-called-him-a-fancy-boy-before-paying-him-a-memorable-complimenthttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/02/buck-sexton-shares-the-moment-george-bush-called-him-a-fancy-boy-before-paying-him-a-memorable-compliment/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=buck-sexton-shares-the-moment-george-bush-called-him-a-fancy-boy-before-paying-him-a-memorable-compliment#commentsTue, 03 Feb 2015 00:08:51 +0000Erica RitzGlenn Beck aired an hour-long conversation with TheBlaze’s national security adviser Buck Sexton on Monday, asking the radio host and former CIA officer what moment of his life he would re-live if he had the chance.

“There was something special [with former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney],” Sexton recalled. “We spoke for 20, 25 minutes, sort of like we’re sitting here, talking about Iraq. … I think I was 26. I had just come back though from the theater, and on this subject with what they wanted to talk about, I happened to be the guy. … The guy happened to be a 26-year-old kid.”

Sexton said as he was walking out of the Oval Office, there was a spring in his step until the president called out, “Wait a minute — get back here.”

Sexton said he felt a brief moment of panic, thinking, “Oh gosh, what did I — did I say something…?” as he saw the president and vice president sitting there looking at him.

But Sexton said what Bush wanted to ask him was, “How does some fancy boy from New York City end up in the middle of Iraq doing the things you’re doing?”

“I literally was sort of dumbstruck,” Sexton told Beck. “And I said, ‘I don’t know sir. There’s not a lot of us, but there’s some of us.’ And he goes, ‘Well let me tell you something: while the rest of those fancy city boys are out there opining about this war, you’re helping us fight it, and I’m proud of you.’”

“That was pretty much drop-the-mic awesome,” Sexton admitted with a laugh. “Not going to lie, that was pretty good.”

Watch Sexton’s recollection of the moment with the former president below.

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!

]]>42Taliban claims responsibility for ‘insider attack’ that killed three Americanshttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/01/30/taliban-claims-responsibility-for-insider-attack-that-killed-three-americans/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=taliban-claims-responsibility-for-insider-attack-that-killed-three-americanshttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/01/30/taliban-claims-responsibility-for-insider-attack-that-killed-three-americans/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=taliban-claims-responsibility-for-insider-attack-that-killed-three-americans#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 19:24:33 +0000Tom OrrThe Taliban on Friday claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack that killed three civilian American contractors at a military base at Kabul International Airport. A Taliban spokesman claimed on Twitter that it was an insider attack by “an infiltrator” named Ihsanullah.

A 2011 attack at the same facility in Kabul that killed eight U.S. airmen and an American civilian contractor was the subject of the November For the Record episode “Insider Attack.”

In the episode, For the Record investigated claims that the 2011 attack, the deadliest insider attack of the Afghanistan War, may have been a result of an ongoing investigation into corruption inside the Afghan air force. A December 2014 report from the U.S. watchdog in Afghanistan concluded that corruption in the region was still a major problem.

A Dover Air Force Base honor guard carries the coffin of one of the victims of an April 2011 insider attack.

Insider attacks have been a major concern for military leaders throughout the war. While the U.S. military has not released comprehensive statistics on so-called “green on blue” incidents, the Long War Journal tracked the killings and found that they peaked at 61 deaths in 2012. At least 144 coalition soldiers and civilians were killed in insider attacks from 2008 through September 2014, including the August 2014 death of U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Harold Greene —the highest-ranking soldier to be killed in combat since the Vietnam War.

You can learn more about the issue by watching “Insider Attack” on demand and with this free Web extra segment:

]]>1‘FTR’ Flash: New report confirms there was no evidence of ‘humanitarian crisis’ in Libyahttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/01/29/ftr-flash-new-report-confirms-there-was-no-evidence-of-humanitarian-crisis-in-libya/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-flash-new-report-confirms-there-was-no-evidence-of-humanitarian-crisis-in-libyahttp://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/01/29/ftr-flash-new-report-confirms-there-was-no-evidence-of-humanitarian-crisis-in-libya/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=post&utm_content=ftr-flash-new-report-confirms-there-was-no-evidence-of-humanitarian-crisis-in-libya#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 00:41:29 +0000Tom OrrA new report from The Washington Times reveals that top Congressional and military officials tried to undermine Hillary Clinton and the State Department’s handling of the Libyan conflict in 2011.

The Times report confirms much of the information reported by For The Record in our April 2014 episode, “Zero Footprint.” Specifically, that the intelligence community had no evidence of an impending “humanitarian crisis,” which was the State Department’s primary rationale for utilizing the U.S. Military to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power.

FTR Correspondent Sara Carter spoke to Kelly Riddell, the co-author of the Washington Times article, by phone on Thursday while on assignment in Texas for the latest edition of our new podcast series FTR Flash.

]]>4Beck’s Response to Obama’s Interview With YouTube Personalities: ‘The President Is a Joke’http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/01/23/becks-response-to-obamas-interview-with-youtube-personalities-the-president-is-a-joke/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=becks-response-to-obamas-interview-with-youtube-personalities-the-president-is-a-jokehttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/01/23/becks-response-to-obamas-interview-with-youtube-personalities-the-president-is-a-joke/?utm_source=TheBlaze.com&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=story&utm_content=becks-response-to-obamas-interview-with-youtube-personalities-the-president-is-a-joke#commentsFri, 23 Jan 2015 18:56:26 +0000Erica Ritz“Sweetheart, let me tell you something. You were just used.”
]]>Glenn Beck on Friday blasted President Barack Obama’s recent interview with a series of YouTube personalities, saying the man has turned the presidency into a “joke.”

“The president is a joke. The president has made the presidency into a joke. He’s made the State of the Union into a joke. He’s made the relationship of the president with the world a joke,” Beck said. “[YouTube personality] GloZell was honored. … Sweetheart, let me tell you something. You were just used. You were used because he knew you weren’t going to ask any questions. You were a shill, a propaganda shill.”

Beck made it clear that he has no problem with GloZell or any of the other YouTube personalities, though he does find it peculiar that GloZell put honey in her eyes and tried to snort a condom through her nose and then spit it out.

“I have no problem with GloZell. She plays a role in society,” Beck said. “She might be a nice person and everything else. Here’s my problem: The president selected her to do an interview right after the State of the Union.”

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program Jan. 23, 2015. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Beck said the president is attempting to avoid real questions about everything from the Islamic State to quantitative easing, so now he is even avoiding journalists who are “in the bag,” going to YouTube personalities for interviews instead.

“Is there anyone [at CNN] that says, ‘You know what? This is getting ridiculous. There are serious issues in the world,’” Beck asked. “‘And we agree with the president. But he doesn’t even want to talk to us. Why? Because he can’t answer any of those questions. And so he goes either to a foreign language or he goes to GloZell. He’s not even answering to the people at all.’”

Beck’s co-host Stu Burguiere speculated that the administration sees no benefit to accepting an interview where the president could be challenged.

“Look, he’s won twice with [this approach] and maybe they’ve just realized, ‘Why go out there and try to convince people who are going to know my policies aren’t working?’” he said. “It’s about winning.”

“For us it’s about the saving of the United States of America and the western way of life,” Beck retorted. “What would happen in the 1930s if Winston Churchill decided just to go … on stage with magicians and burlesque shows? That would have been the equivalent. … Can you imagine what would have been said in the buildup to the 1930s if the prime minister of England was doing that?”

The full episode of The Glenn Beck Program, along with many other live-streaming shows and thousands of hours of on-demand content, is available on just about any digital device. Click here to watch every Glenn Beck episode from the past 30 days for just $1!